What is CDN?
CDN or Content Delivery Network actually refers to a highly distributed platform of servers in multiple locations that help reduce delays in loading web content. CDN does this by minimizing the distance between the server and the web visitor.
Without a CDN platform, the origin server hosting the website has to respond to every single end-user request. As a result, there will be significant traffic and a heavy load to the origin server, which increases the chances of failure once it no longer is able to handle the exceedingly high traffic load or a consistently high volume of traffic.
By employing CDNs, on the other hand, there will be a server responding to end-user requests in place of the origin server. The best part is that the CDN servers are closer in proximity to the end-user, making transmission easier and shorter.
The CDN offloads the content from the origin server and delivers it to the end-user via their own server. This results in better and faster web experience.
How does a CDN Work?
Did you know that half of the internet’s traffic is served by CDNs? That is right. Without CDNs, we will be living in a world where people are competing who gets to load a website first.
The main goal of content delivery network platforms is to minimize latency. Latency refers to the delay or amount of time that passed from an end-user submitting a request for a web-page, and the web page fully loading. CDNs reduce latency by reducing the actual physical distance that the request has to travel.
To actually achieve this feat, CDNs store a cached version of the website content in different data centers in different geographical locations around the globe. These are calls “points of presence“ or PoPs. These have their own caching server, which will be the one responsible for delivering the web content to end-users near that particular location.
What happens is that when a web visitor goes to a website, they are actually making requests for content that is needed to render a webpage. These include HTML, CSS, JavaScript files, and images.
In the past, these all fall on the lap of the origin server that is hosting the website. That is why there are times that web page loading is fast, and sometimes it is slow. It depends on the visitor’s proximity to the server, their internet speed, and the amount of traffic going to the origin server at the time.
With CDN, however, the request for content will fall on the nearest PoP and it will respond to the visitor with a cached version of the requested content to load the web page.
Why use a CDN for your Website?
As more and more businesses are going the online route and the world is more interconnected than ever, more and more challenges are blocking the way of content delivery. There’s the challenge of serving a global audience, the challenge of serving both desktop and mobile devices, and the challenge of cybersecurity threats like DDoS attacks.
As a website owner, you want to overcome these challenges and provide your users with the best web experience possible regardless if they are online shopping or simply browsing your content.
The answer to all these challenges is going with a CDN. Without you knowing it, CDNs have actually become the backbone of the internet. They are extending the reach of websites without burdening origin servers with too much traffic that can lead to failure. Plus, they have unique security capabilities that safeguard your IP transmission against unwanted intrusions and DDoS attacks.
Now that you know about CDNs and how it can benefit your own website, it is time to extend your reach and give your web visitors the best web experience possible.
For more information, you can go to belugacdn.com.
Cloud Content Delivery Network – Web Administrators Solution to Web and Video on Demand
You are not familiar with the term CDN or content delivery network, but the technology is actually widely used in the modern internet landscape.
If you are a frequent web user, you will have a better appreciation of CDN because of its significance in delivering to you web content faster in a global setting.
In fact, if you have a website and you want to provide the best web experience to your visitors even if they are halfway across the globe, then CDN is the way to go.
But before you decide, see above a brief introduction on CDN or Content Delivery Network Definition.
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