Defining a CDN fast server
There’s no denying that we’ve come a long way with the internet. The world is slowly starting to gravitate towards the digital spectrum and businesses are starting to shift many assets to the cloud. One good reason going about online browsing and transactions have become easy and simple is because of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). Today, the cloud content delivery platform now takes care of more than half of the internet. A huge number of things have now become feasible and fast because of the power of a CDN fast server. But what exactly is it and how are societies empowered by this technology?
Defined simply, a CDN is a group of servers distributed in many parts of the world to better relay web content to international and global users. Additionally, CDN architecture consists of two main elements: the origin servers and the cache servers.
The first server type is where web data is originally stored, while the second server type is where content copied and cached. Hence, the technical term CDN fast server is really just a cluster of servers communicating content to each other. To better understand the science of what a CDN fast server is, this article explores how the technology works and what considerations one should factor in when looking for the best CDN.
CDN fast server: how does it work?
Every website that’s live on the internet is managed by a web host and is made available through an origin host. When a website isn’t backed up by a CDN fast server, users obtain a site’s data through the origin host. Generally, this shouldn’t be a problem if your users are proximally near wherever the origin host is. Say, your origin is based in New York. Every time you have website visitors from New Jersey or Toronto, accessing your many web pages shouldn’t be a problem. But when you have a growing website visitorship from Seoul, or Amsterdam, or even Sydney, this could be a challenge to your users because of the lags they’ll experience with your website.
This is how a CDN fast server saves the day.
Instead of your users consistently consuming your web content from the origin, a CDN fast server allows your web data to be stored in other cache servers, so that your visitors from farther parts of the globe still enjoy the same quality browsing experience your nearby users do. That being mentioned, when you have users who try accessing your site from the opposite end of the globe, they access your data through their edge server—meaning the server nearest their location.
This is made possible by a CDN provider’s many Points of Presence (PoP). T elaborate, a PoP is a data center that houses routers, servers, and other similar technology. Simply put, these are the locations where your CDN provider is present or has a base.
That aside, does every website owner need to buy CDN? Will every business immediately benefit from the could content delivery platform when they buy CDN?
When is it best to buy CDN?
In all honesty, a CDN fast server improves a site’s speed almost immediately. But is it advantageous for every single website? Not entirely. Know that a CDN fast server exists, primarily, to reduce latency. And latency is most felt when the origin host and users are incredibly distant from each other or if site traffic is heavier than usual. But when your site doesn’t generate all that traffic or if your site is available only for a select few, then it might not be best to buy CDN straight away.
Consider getting CDN only if your site:
- Naturally houses a growing list of dynamic media
- Generates growing traffic and visitorship from international regions
- Is vulnerable to digital attacks.
- What is the best CDN for me?
Which provider offers the best CDN?
There’s a lot of debate as to which the best CDN provider is and how the best CDN should be defined. But people should always remember that what works for every other business might not work for yours.
Ultimately, the best CDN is one that understands your business and website needs and meets most of them, if not all. For instance, a lot of leaders who have a fresh understanding of how the CDN technology works easily believe that the most popular provider should be the best CDN. And while that’s arguable, this may not benefit their brand every time. Popular providers have hundreds of PoPs in the world, but your website doesn’t always need that much attention. You could only be wasting your company budget if your definition of the best CDN is whichever one is the most famous.
Determine the countries and regions you need to have a strong presence in and look for a provider that has PoPs in wherever your content has to be strongest in. The best CDN should also always provide transparent pricing. Having to guess who much your CDN bill is, is never a fun thing.
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