1. A method for processing requests to a given application executable in a distributed computing environment, wherein a set of edge servers are deployed in the distributed computing environment to offload processing from one or more origin servers, and wherein the given application has at least a first component and a second component, comprising: responsive to receipt of a request at a given edge server, determining whether the request is the first request for the given application; if the request is the first request for the given application, retrieving the first component; upon installation of the first component, or if the request is not the first request for the given application, executing the first component; communicating with the origin server on an as needed basis to execute the second component; and generating a response to the request based on the results of executing the first component and, as needed, the second component.