If you have ever wondered how it is possible that the content you consume on the web is delivered so fast, the answer in many cases might be CDN.
How does it aid in providing users with the smoothest browsing experience regardless of where they are? That’s what we’re here to explain.
Why is CDN used?
As you might already guess, there is a limit to how fast information can travel across the web. This limit is what we call latency, and it depends on how far a server is from the users accessing a website on it.
The problem of latency can be minimized by choosing a server location that is as close as possible to the target audience of a particular website – and providers such as HostZealot among others, do offer a wide variety of location. However, if a website is going to cover audiences that are extended across multiple geographical zones, remote from one another, there must be a different approach – and in our case, this is a Content Delivery Network or a CDN.
How does a CDN work?
A Content Delivery Network is a network of globally distributed servers that reduce the load of the main servers while also speeding up the content delivery. CDN uses the approach of caching – saving the temporary copies of webpages and files on them that can be quickly accessed every time they are needed.
A CDN consists of multiple so-called Points of Presence around the world. Each Point of Presence or PoP stores a copy of a website and this copy is accessed every time someone who is closer to the PoP rather than to the main server of the website accesses the website.
When it comes to content, CDNs usually don’t store all the content on a website, especially if these are big pieces of media like video files. However, the most frequently requested pieces of content are cached on a CDN, which makes them more easily accessible for further use. Besides that, there are a bunch of additional benefits that you can reap from a CDN.
- Load balancing: Besides making the content of a server more easily accessible to visitors, a CDN reduces the load of the main server, which reduces the chance of its performance being compromised by an excessive number of requests.
- Bandwidth optimization: Although many providers offer unlimited bandwidth, this is not always the case – and even the unlimited bandwidth may have its limits in certain cases. Therefore, properly managing bandwidth has its benefits. In this regard, a CDN will always be helpful since it can manage and optimize the delivery of large video files to multiple users simultaneously, adjusting the quality and format of the video based on the user’s internet connection speed and device capabilities, saving your bandwidth and making the content delivery smoother.
- Redundancy and Failover: CDNs implement redundancy measures to ensure high availability and reliability. If one server fails or experiences issues, the CDN can automatically reroute traffic to other functioning servers, minimizing downtime and maintaining a seamless streaming experience.
- Peering Agreements: CDNs often have peering agreements with internet service providers (ISPs) and network operators. These collaborations help reduce the network hops between the CDN servers and end-users, further decreasing latency and improving the overall performance.
- Search Engine Optimization: By improving the performance of your website, you elevate its reputation for search engines, making a website more easily findable via search queries and increasing the number of potential visitors.
How to find a CDN provider?
There is a variety of CDN providers nowadays. Unlike hosting services, CDN offers vary more across each other. Some CDN providers are market giants like Microsoft, Google, or Amazon, and some are smaller and more specialized companies.
Some hosting providers offer CDN as a service as well. Besides that, many CDN providers offer not only CDN, but also a lot of additional services that can improve security and contribute to the general performance of your website. There is no universal recommendation as to how to find the right CDN provider.
The common principle of analyzing your needs and researching what offers on the market may satisfy your requirements in the best way to go about here. Don’t pick the first deal you find and always question what exactly it entails.
Conclusion
A Content Delivery Network is an extremely efficient tool that can speed up content delivery and balance server loads, together with some more advantages that result from it.
If you’re a website owner and you want your content to be accessible to an audience that is geographically distributed, a CDN would be ideal.
