Today, several companies make use of CDNs (Content Delivery Network) to ensure that they have an edge in online reach. The misunderstanding that several people have concerning CDNs is that they are just utilized for minimizing latency. In this blog post, we will find out what CDNs can do and how do CDNs work, so continue reading this post.
What is CDN (Content Delivery Network)?
A Content Delivery Network or CDN is a network of servers situated in strategic geographical locations to store the cached content. This assures that web content is delivered faster to users across the globe no matter how far they are from an originating server.
Also read: Cloudflare CDN: How to Enable CDN On Your Website
Objectives of CDN
Though the main objective of a CDN is to offer web page loads. However, there few other benefits of using a CDN.
Reduced Bandwidth Usage And Lower Expenditures
Because the content is shared from caches, the load on the originating server is minimized. Additionally, this helps in averting the probability of bandwidth limits being violated with your web hosting provider. For example, a huge percentage of traffic will surf a website, initially going through products/content to view if it’s worthwhile their time and money. Just a small percentage will determine to continue with a conversion. In such a case, the company can utilize a CDN to foster to their browsing traffic (a larger percentage) and assist clients in the conversion stage with updated content from the main server.
Security
CDN technology is currently equipped with WAFs (Web Application Firewalls), DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) mitigation, bot blocking, spam blocking, bot mitigation, TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption, and hacking prevention. These precautionary measures are utilized to identify and eradicate any threat before it reaches the origin server. Considering existing cybersecurity problems, these security features are an immense blessing.
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Improved SEO
With a reduction in web page loading speeds, the potential of a website to rank higher in Google SERP has gradually increased. Sped is a crucial factor in SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Additionally, you can read this article on “Improve Website SEO with Cloudflare“
Enhanced Performance
Offloading content to their CDNs helps the main server efficiently handle traffic surges that may happen.
Reliability
If one server is not available, the request is automatically routed to the subsequent available server, assuring a no-fail setup.
Dynamic content
A conventional understanding of a CDN is one that simply caches static content like HTML, CSS, JS, and image files. However, currently, CDNs foster dynamic content as well. Several brands are putting efforts to reach their audiences with the best content possible. However, video content would impact web page load time. For instance, several CDNs promise to make it simpler with features to support broadcast-quality video.
Advanced Analytics
CDNs currently provide advanced analytical insights to network traffic.
Hence, CDNs allows you to offer your clients a seamless, secure experience of your online services.
What difference does a CDN make?
Performance with a CDN vs No CDN. Below is an illustration of the difference a CDN makes.
Cloudflare – A Content Delivery Network
These numbers make a huge difference for a web user
How does CDN work?
The geographical regions over which the CDN’s data centers are spread are named as PoPs or ‘Point of Presence’. This will be placed as per the location of website traffic. The servers at each PoP are named as ‘Edge Servers’. Edge server cache the content from the originating server.
While a website visitor requests for a web page, the CDN redirects to the most proximal connected server to the Website visitor’s geographical location. This occurs if the content of the web page is cached with the CDN server initially
Who Should Use a CDN?
Huge businesses with generally a huge amount of traffic and those that serve locations all across the globe shall benefit by using a CDN. A CDN really isn’t essential if you own a local business and if you are not thinking of expanding operational areas in the near future.
CDNs and Hosting Packages
Currently, several web hosting providers do include CDN with their hosting packages. We hope, through this article you got better understanding of What CDNs are how to make better choice for your website or hosting businesses.
