CDN (Content Delivery Network)

• December 28, 2020
• by Admin

WHAT IS CDN?

CDN Stands for Content Delivery Network. It is a highly-distributed platform with many servers which are separated globally. The web content delivers to the end-user based on the regional location of the user. And also based on the origin webpage, the CDN server.

CDN Service is viable in speeding the delivery of website content. CDN also increases traffic which leads websites to global reach. The user gets the faster content to deliver by the closest CDN server. CDNs also provide security and protection from large streams in traffic.

That being said, a CDN enables the fast transmission of images, javascript files, HTML pages, stylesheets, and other assets required to load Internet content. CDN is starting to gain more popularity as its demand continues to grow. Today, a good chunk of web traffic is largely channeled through CDNs. Websites like Netflix, Twitter, Amazon, and Facebook all make use of it.

To fully grasp how this science works, one needs to have a reasonable understanding of how regular web hosting functions, to begin with. Given the usual web hosting set-up, all the data traffic going through your site is transferred to your web host and server—the party responsible for your data and other media.

An efficient CDN also aids in securing websites from hackers that run malicious attacks.

CDN Definition and is it the same as a web host?

To start, CDN doesn’t work as a web host because it’s unable to host content. It also doesn’t carry the capacity to cradle web hosting necessities. It does, however, at the network edge, assist in caching content. This, in turn, enhances website performance. A lot of sites have difficulty meeting their performance needs by utilizing only traditional hosting services, hence the decision to resort to CDNs.

That established, the CDNs are becoming a fast-rising solution to relieve a few primal issues that are present with traditional web hosting such as preventing interruptions in service, and bettering overall security.

Types of CDN

To have a better understanding of what CDN actually is and how it works, you need to understand its types.

At BelugaCDN, we prefer to differentiate CDN services based on two factors: goal and content distribution technique.

According to the goal of the Content Delivery Network service, there are:

1. Content-Oriented Networks. This type of CDN is made for storing and delivering static content and files. This is one of the cheap CDN solutions whose primary goal is to hasten your website’s load speed.
2. Security-Oriented Networks. Reliable providers, like we at BelugaCDN, can protect your portal’s content and boost security. For example, our CDN can detect and block DDoS attacks before they reach your servers. We also offer other efficient tools to improve protection (more on that later).

Also, CDN can be divided into a “pull zone” and “push zone” CDN based on the content distribution technique. What is the CDN zone? Let’s see.

1. Pull zone CDN. A pull CDN automatically gets assets and files from your platform. It’s a reliable solution for storing small and medium-sized files.
2. Push zone CDN. A more fitting solution for the storage of larger files and static content. The main difference – you have to upload the files manually.

How to Choose a CDN Provider

When choosing a CDN, you need to analyze what your requirements are, and once you have a list, the checklist becomes more straightforward, but there are still few general considerations that you need to make sure before choosing a suitable content delivery network provider to meet your needs.

• Do they offer professional support?
• Can CDN ensure website security?
• How long does it take to purge a file?
• Is DNS configuration complex or smooth?
• How long does it take to upload a file to the edge?
• To what extent does the CDN manage public name resolvers such as OpenDNS or Google?
• Is CDN faster than your origin?

Hence, there are many CDN providers, but choosing the best one is never easy, so choose the secure one, fit individual needs, performance, and relatively cheaper service provider

Can CDN improve website load times?

Yes, CDN can improve website loading times. Millions of users request on the original server at a time, which can cause a lot of stress for your server. In such a situation, a CDN helps to deliver the content requested by users through its distributed network of external servers.

Therefore, this reduces the load on your original server. Also, it increases the loading speed of your website pages and also reduces latency.

CDN keeps a website always online?

Yes, CDN maintains a website always online. Sometimes, viruses or any other attacks your site may crash, and your home server is not available for the users. Hence, your 1 in 4 customers leave your website and never return.

In such a situation, a CDN will supply a partial duplicate copy of your website and will create the Always Online version of your website so that your mainly well-liked pages are shown to your visitors.

CDN protects data?

CDNs deploy different ways to protect website data. Since CDNs use backup servers located in various data centers in different regions of the world, this dispersed infrastructure provides a more secure network. CDNs are designed to analyze and absorb unusual traffic spikes and protect the website from a DDoS attack before any damage is done.

Many CDN also block threats and prevent bots and malicious robots from wasting your bandwidth and server resources. Hence, it leads to a decrease in hacking attacks and spam. Again, it depends on a service that your CDN provider offers.

How does a CDN reduce bandwidth costs?

Various web hosts cost organizations for data transferred from the originating server. But CDN reduces the amount of data between the Web host server and the user, which reduces traffic between them and the rest of the Internet. This act in itself reduces the need for excessive abuse of accommodation costs.

CDN stores duplicate copies of website content closer to end-users and allows less data transfer from the originating server, thereby reducing bandwidth consumption and costs.

But be aware that bandwidth consumption is already a massive part of the cost, so CDNs help website owners save this cost and improve page load times, or increase the global availability of the content.

Best benefits of using CDN

The advantages and perks that come with a CDN differ as they’re reliant on the needs of an internet property and its size. The top benefits for a majority of users can be divided into 4 elements:

Improve website loading period

By apportioning content closer to a website user by turning to a CDN ever nearby—this on top of other optimizations—users will notice that loading periods become faster. Because site visitors are likely to close a tab altogether once it shows signs of loading slowly, a CDN may counter this. That said, CDNs improve the staying time people are on a website. Simply put, the faster a website is, the more users are likely to stay on a site longer.

Reduce bandwidth budget allocation

Through other mergers and simple caching, CDNs can lessen the data extent a web host server is required to provide. This act in itself already reduces the need to splurge on hosting costs. Know that bandwidth consumption already takes a huge slice of the costs, so CDNs help website owners save.

Improving content redundancy and availability

Huge amounts of hardware mishaps or traffic can hamper an ordinary website performance. Because of CDN’s apportioning nature, they’re built to withstand mishaps relating to hardware and take on more traffic a lot better than several origin servers.

Enhance site security

Because a CDN can provide security certificates, other important protection mergers, and DDoS mitigation most especially, CDNs enhance security even more.

How CDNs Works?

At its simplest, as defined earlier, a CDN is a structure of servers “chained” together to deliver content as reliably, cheaply, and quickly, as possible. To ensure connectivity and optimized speed, CDNs install servers usually at exchange points that surround various networks.

The fundamental locations of these Internet exchange points are where an assortment of Internet providers connect to gain and provide access to traffic coming from these different networks. Furthermore, a CDN provider improves transit times and reduces costs simply by making use of a connection to these highly interconnected areas.

CDN Architecture and Key Components

Today, every business’s technological need is to deliver website content with high speed, availability, and performance to the users present globally, so the design of CDN architecture essential must-have technology for IT administrators. Everything from distributing resource-ravenous multimedia files to reducing the time it takes to load static files from a website is essential to content owners and users. Having the right CDN architecture in place ensures that users around the world receive optimized content delivery.

Here is a easy model of a content delivery network, its key components with their roles:

Wikimedia

• Content provider: the individual providing the content
• Permission: the content provider gives the authorization to the CDN provider to make available content
• Reports: The content provider requires performance analyzes from the CDN provider to assess the service quality of the CDN provider and to have access to other relevant data
• Resource: the content provider drives a duplicate of the content
• Content: digital information created and licensed for distribution
• Ask for: user requests content provider to display or store content locally.
• Deliver: CDN delivers the content to the user
• Customer: the individual requesting content from the content provider

Hence, when looking for a CDN provider, be sure to look for a few important components, including:

1. HTTP / 2 support
2. 100% SSD optimized peripheral servers
3. A healthy distribution of POPs

Having an overview of the architecture of a CDN concerning the location of their POPs and whether their servers are performing can help provide a better overview of the reliability of the CDN.

Website Speed Test & Content Delivery Network

Slow-loading websites can frustrate users and negatively impact your website’s conversion rates, search rankings, and the overall user experience.

Therefore, in such a situation, the web speed test, the CDN download test, will provide accurate data on how the CDN works to extract data and bring it to specific locations in the world. Also, it will measure the time required to load the content of a URL.

However, we all know that website speed is crucial for a good user experience, which is essential for every organization. So, CDN can speed up your websites,

1. By reducing the load on your server.
2. Maintaining your website’s duplicate content is typically located closer to end-users than the original host or server.
3. Allowing multiple user-independents of your website to be loaded at the same time from thousands of kilometers away and open more connections to different servers.

In other words, CDN speed tests are not just for your customers, but for the productivity in your future business.

Interested in getting a CDN for your company? Check out our plans and get our free trial today!

Have feedback? Let @belugaCDN know on Twitter