Laravel Cloud Achieves Sub-500ms Scale-to-Zero Using Checkpoint/Restore Technology

Summary

Laravel Cloud introduced a new "Flex" scale-to-zero feature that reduces wake time from 10 seconds to under 500 milliseconds using checkpoint/restore technology. Instead of performing a cold boot on every request, the runtime saves the full in-memory state to disk and restores it instantly. The original implementation had a 10-second wake time that was noticeable to users, and adding database/cache startup would have made it worse, so most apps kept those running continuously. The new approach also includes spending limits that enforce a hard monthly ceiling for apps.