A content delivery network (CDN) is a large distributed system of servers in different locations to improve delivery of static and streaming content. The goal of a CDN network is to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance. For that, the CDN servers cache static Web content such as HTML pages, images and videos on servers located close to target users. The end result is that websites load quickly, regardless of where your data center is located, by reducing the distance between the end user and the data server.
However, this is not the only benefit of deploying CDN. In reality, there are many more benefits. For instance, CDN is recommended for an e-commerce website with a large number of concurrent users in different regions of the world. In such an application, where the target audience is spread across the world, the traditional server can handle only a limited number of requests. In addition, since the distance between the e-commerce data center and its target audience is lot more now, it results in delays with traditional servers.
In fact, besides speed and latency, there are other virtues of CDN, which have been clearly described by IT infrastructure solutions provider Internap (News - Alert) in a recent infographic. It shows that with geographic diversity (nodes spread all over the world) CDN can easily re-route traffic in the event of an outage. Additionally, CDN also reduces the effect of attack, which has been lately on the rise. Media reports indicate that Denial of Service attacks account for the largest percentage (32 percent) of attack methods used by hackers.
This Infographic website also presents several reasons for deploying CDN. It shows that CDN can perform a number of functions that make it increasingly valuable and integral to any successful website and Internet presence. Per Internap’s experience, five key reasons for using CDN include:
- The ability to handle the Slashdot Effect, the massive increase in a website’s traffic and subsequent downtime as a result of referral from a high-profile website with a larger audience
- Protecting websites from Denial of Service attacks
- Supporting new markets for products, services and information
- Reducing infrastructure costs
- Making page turns faster for a consistent user experience
If you are a local business with a user base that is confined to a limited region, your website may not need the CDN optimization, says Internap. But, if your traffic surges and your website must now handle multiple users simultaneously, you will be required to deploy CDN to optimize your website.
Edited by Rachel Ramsey