A content delivery network, also called a content distribution network, is a distributed network of servers designed to load a website as quickly as possible. It is a group of servers spread across different geographical locations to deliver content quickly.
Content delivery networks allow fast loading speeds in a website by transferring parts of data such as javascript files, HTML files, images, and videos to a server close to the user in order to reduce delays. Most websites that are large and have customers worldwide make use of CDN services to deliver internet content quickly. Major sites like Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook use a content delivery network to deliver content and web traffic. CDN servers are also useful for protecting websites from attackers and malicious software.
In this article
- How does a CDN work?
- Who uses CDNs?
- Is A CDN Server The Same As A Web Host?
- Are CDNs Expensive?
- Benefits of CDNs
- Importance Of Content Delivery Network
- Related Reads
How Does a CDN Work?
A content delivery network is a network of servers spread across the world to deliver content from close proximity to the user. Their purpose is to deliver content to the customer as fast as possible, cheaply, reliably, and efficiently. If the servers are far away from the customers, the contents of the websites will take too long to reach them. By the time the data actually reaches the customer, they might have already left the website. It is not uncommon for users to leave a website for being too slow and laggy. As an example, Amazon has its own CDN called Amazon AWS.
This is where a content delivery network service comes into play. A CDN will place servers at exchange points of different networks. These exchange points are called internet exchange points. They are the center points at which different internet service providers meet for the purpose of accessing traffic that originates from their networks. Having access to these points allows a CDN provider to reduce costs and increase transit times during high-speed data delivery.
Besides placing multiple servers across multiple internet exchange points, a CDN also optimizes the standard data servers. CDN services strategically place data centers to be better prepared against any failures and congestion in traffic.
On the technical side, a CDN management system determines the location of the user and the servers nearest to them. Based on these calculations, the content requested by the user will be sent using the server nearest to them. There are also CDN edge servers whose job is to communicate with the servers belonging to the original content and deliver the cached content and new information to the end user.
The purpose of edge servers is to reduce the time it takes for content to reach the destination of the user. For example, if your website is based in the US, you will probably need a CDN to efficiently reach a customer who is in Australia. The time it takes to reach the user must be seamless; otherwise, you might start losing customers.
Who Uses CDNs?
Everyone who accesses the web is using a CDN service inadvertently. A web hosting service uses CDN to improve the website speed and ensure the web content is delivered to the user quickly and safely.
CDN services are used by
- End users
- Content owners
- Network service providers
Is A CDN Server The Same as a Web Host?
No, they are not the same. Content delivery network servers are an intermediary between the web hosting service and the end user. A CDN cannot replace a web host, but it does help with cache content at the network edge. The difference is that a CDN stores a cached version of the original content across multiple geographical locations. This improves the website’s performance. To get the best results, you should opt for a CDN provider so that you can cut down on bandwidth costs and improve website performance.
Are CDNs Expensive?
Most content delivery services charge for their services, but you can save a lot of bandwidth compared to a regular web hosting provider. You will be able to save more monthly data transfers using a CDN than you would by using a web hosting service.
Benefits Of CDNs
DNs provide numerous advantages:
1. Efficiency
A CDN is designed to efficiently transfer data across the world. At present, if a video or a webpage takes more than 2 to 3 seconds to load, there is a high chance that a person might leave the website. This delay is because either the page is too big or the user is far away from the home server of the website. A CDN can help speed up the delivery time of the website assets and improve the user experience. Latency is a key factor in website loading times. CDN services can help speed up the loading times of the website in numerous ways, such as:
- Reducing the distance between the user and the website resources. It lets a user connect to the geographically closest data center instead of connecting to the website’s original server. The website server will be farther in terms of distance from the user. The lesser travel time translates to faster service.
- Optimizing the hardware and software with efficient load balancing.
- Reducing the amount of data that is transferred by minimizing the file sizes. This is done using minification and file compression. If the file sizes are smaller, the load times will also be faster.
- Speeding up sites that use TLS (transport layer security) protocol. A CDN Enables the TLS false start and optimizes the connection reuse.
2. Reliability
Apart from needing a fast loading speed, a website also needs to have a reliable uptime. One of the most important parts of a website is uptime, the time a website or service is available for the user. Various factors like hardware failures, an increase in traffic, or malicious software could come into play to reduce that uptime. These obstacles can bring down a web server, slow down the website loading time, and even prevent users from accessing a website or service. With a good CDN provider, you will be able to reduce the uptime by a good margin. It can help reduce the time by
- Distributing the traffic across several networks using load balancing.
- Use intelligent failover to provide uninterrupted service even if one of the servers goes offline due to a hardware failure. The intelligent failover can redirect the traffic to operational servers at times like these.
- If a data center is having technical issues, then Anycast comes in and reroutes the traffic to any other data center. This makes sure that users don’t lose access to the website. If you don’t know what Anycast is, it is a collection of servers sharing the same IP address. The data from the source computer is sent to a topographically closest server, which helps reduce latency, bandwidth costs, and loading time for the user.
3. Security
A CDN provider also helps websites by keeping them safe from harmful software. It helps data security by keeping a site secure with TLS and SSL certificates. These certifications will ensure the highest security, integrity, and encryption standards are maintained. Investigations will be conducted if a problem regarding data security arises around a CDN server, and measures will be taken to deliver content to the user as safely as possible.
4. Reduces Cost
When an origin server responds to a request, valuable bandwidth is consumed. Content delivery networks can help reduce bandwidth consumption. This is because a content delivery system lies between the user and the origin server and cuts down the traffic. Usually, web hosting services charge for transferring data in the form of bandwidth. But if a website’s content is cached in a CDN network and then sent to the user, you can cut down on bandwidth costs. A CDN does not require a large amount of data to transfer content. Instead, it compresses the files and reduces the file size making the process much more efficient and cheaper than a regular web hosting service.
Importance Of Content Delivery Network
If a customer does not get the information you intend to convey in a matter of seconds, your website will lose that potential customer. A content delivery network is an important aspect of any online business. Without it, a huge amount of data cannot be sent across different servers so that it reaches the end user in time.
Related Reads
Doorway Pages: The Risks and Consequences In 2023
Orphan Pages: Best Practices and Tips To Prevent Them In 2023
