Member-only story

How to Run Dapr on the Edge Without Internet

4 min readMar 23, 2025
Johan Louwers — Lego research station
Lego research station

In a remote research station deep in the Arctic, a network of autonomous sensors and computing nodes must operate without direct access to the cloud. These devices continuously collect environmental data, detect anomalies, and synchronize with central systems only when a satellite link becomes available. Ensuring reliable communication, state management, and real-time decision-making in such an environment requires a new approach to distributed computing.

Dapr (Distributed Application Runtime) presents an innovative way to solve these challenges by abstracting the complexities of distributed systems. But can Dapr function in an isolated network-deprived edge scenario? The answer is yes — if you architect it correctly.

Rethinking Edge Architecture for the Disconnected World

Traditional cloud-native architectures assume a stable network and seamless access to managed services. The edge, particularly in isolated environments, challenges these assumptions. Microservices need to communicate, store state, and execute business logic without centralized orchestration. This requires a fundamental shift toward an architecture that prioritizes autonomy, resilience, and local-first processing.

--

--

Johan Louwers
Johan Louwers

Written by Johan Louwers

Johan Louwers is a technology enthousiasts with a long background in supporting enterprises and startups alike as CTO, Chief Enterprise Architect and developer.

No responses yet