Austin Spires, Sr. Director of Product Management, Fastly discusses the challenges facing the open web, from platform dominance and fragmentation to threats to interoperability and digital sovereignty.
Strengthening the open web
The open web is under pressure.
Once envisioned as the foundation of a free, decentralised and interoperable internet, it is increasingly being pushed aside by closed platforms, fragmented technologies and economic concentration.
The consequences go far beyond the technical domain: They affect innovation cycles, the digital sovereignty of states and businesses and ultimately the core values of our digital society.
2026 could prove pivotal, revealing whether we as developers, companies and infrastructure operators are willing to strengthen the open web or whether we continue to accept its erosion.
Interoperability as a foundation for innovation
The open web has never been just a technical concept, it has always been a driver of innovation.
Open standards like HTTP, TLS, DNS, HTML and JavaScript enabled ideas to scale globally, services to function across platforms and knowledge to be shared in a decentralised way.
Especially in the early days of the internet, its major advantage was that no central authority decided on visibility or success.
Anyone with an idea could implement it in the browser, without prior approval, app store review or API registration.
Today, the situation is quite different.
Major platform providers dominate data flows, control interfaces and enforce their own standards.
The result is a technological landscape where proprietary solutions often outpace open alternatives.
But the loss of interoperability also means: Less competition, less innovation and growing dependencies.
Fragmentation and loss of control: A growing risk
Fragmentation is increasing on multiple levels.
- Technically: Proprietary APIs, undocumented protocols and non-standardised formats hinder collaboration and integration
- Economically: Concentration around a few platforms leads to lock-in effects, binding data and users
- Politically: The influence of large tech companies on discourse, market dynamics and regulatory processes is growing, often without adequate democratic oversight
At the same time, a countermovement is emerging: Within the developer community, the open-source ecosystem and parts of the economy, awareness is growing that openness can be a strategic advantage.
Not only to unlock innovation potential, but also to regain control over technological foundations.
2026: The next phase of the open web
The foundations for an open, interoperable internet already exist, but they’re now entering a new phase that could redefine digital sovereignty and performance.
Four emerging developments illustrate where the open web is heading:
- WebAssembly beyond the browser: With the upcoming Component Model and WASI 0.2, WebAssembly is evolving into a universal execution layer that runs anywhere, from browsers to edge nodes to AI inference engines. This makes it a serious alternative to containerisation and proprietary runtimes, laying the groundwork for a truly portable, open compute layer across infrastructures
- Edge computing meets AI: Edge architectures are shifting from latency optimisation to AI-native deployment models. Open frameworks like Open Horizon or KubeEdge enable decentralised inference and model updates without relying on hyper-scalers. This means: Real-time data processing closer to users and a revival of open, regional compute ecosystems
- The composable web: From PWAs to WebGPU and WebNN: The next generation of web apps won’t just mimic native apps, they’ll outperform them. Emerging standards such as WebGPU for high-performance graphics and WebNN for on-device machine learning make the browser a powerful, privacy-respecting compute environment. Combined with PWAs, this evolution turns the browser into the primary platform for AI-driven user experiences, open, secure and independent
- Open observability and federated data control: OpenTelemetry is expanding into federated observability, connecting distributed systems across clouds, edges and organisations. New initiatives like Open Feature, W3C Decentralised Identifiers (DID) and Open Data Contracts allow for trust and transparency without vendor lock-in, key pillars of digital resilience in a fragmented world
Together, these developments signal a shift: The open web is not just preserving its legacy, it’s reclaiming the future by blending openness within it.
What companies, developers and architects can do now
Defending the open web doesn’t start in political committees, it begins with everyday technical decisions.
Three actionable areas show how openness can be practised at the architectural level:
- Promote technological openness: Rely on open standards such as OpenAPI, GraphQL or ActivityPub. Avoid proprietary dependencies wherever possible and support open-source projects through contributions and funding. Many established open-source communities are currently experiencing an AI-driven influx of trivial issue submissions, which places additional strain on maintainers. Meaningful, well-researched contributions are therefore more valuable than ever
- Design resilient architectures: As software architect Martin Fowler emphasises, modularisation is one of the most effective strategies to avoid vendor lock-in. A modular architecture keeps systems adaptable and prevents long-term dependency on a single provider, a principle also reflected in Google Cloud’s Architecture Framework. In addition, evaluating self-hosted and federated alternatives such as Matrix, Mastodon or MinIO helps maintain control over data and infrastructure. These open ecosystems illustrate how decentralisation can enhance resilience. Operating your own DNS infrastructure or caching layer as a backup further strengthens autonomy and ensures continued accessibility even when external services fail
- Actively consider digital sovereignty: Technological openness is also a question of governance. As the World Economic Forum defines it, digital sovereignty means maintaining control over your own data, hardware and software – and thus over your digital destiny. Promoting digital literacy within organisations is a key part of that. Treating technical decision-making freedom as a competitive advantage goes hand in hand with using political levers such as the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA aims to reduce monopolistic dependencies and open up fairer digital ecosystems, an opportunity for companies to align resilience with compliance
Outlook: The open web is not nostalgia, it’s future-proofing
It would be a mistake to dismiss the open web as a relic of the past.
Especially at a time when AI systems, data processing and network infrastructures are key drivers of economic and societal progress, openness is a strategic asset.
Developers, companies and infrastructure operators have the power to preserve this openness, through smart architectural choices, clear political stances and investments in open technology.
One thing is certain: If we do not actively shape the open web, it will disappear.
And with it, the opportunity for a free, innovation-friendly and resilient internet.
About Author
Austin Spires is Sr. Director of Product Management at Fastly, where he focuses on user experience.
He’s been working on developer tools and customer happiness for many years and frequently speaks at conferences and meetups.
Before Fastly, Austin worked in sales and support at GitHub, where he helped lead customer onboarding.
