How We Made Cloud Browsers 3x Cheaper and Faster

A cloud browser automation platform was re-architected to reduce session costs by 3x and improve startup speed. The new system replaces Unikernels with Firecracker microVMs, allowing each browser session to run in its own isolated environment on standard EC2 instances. This nested virtualization approach is made efficient through a custom control plane for rapid autoscaling and technical optimizations that reduce memory page faults. By using larger memory pages and a custom handler, the time to get a usable browser ready was cut from 9.8 seconds to 3.1 seconds.