What is CDN (Content Delivery Network)?

A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a system of computers containing copies of data, placed at various points in a network so as to maximize bandwidth for access to the data from clients throughout the network. A client accesses a copy of the data near to the client, as opposed to all clients accessing the same central server, so as to avoid bottleneck near that server.

Content types include web objects, downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications, real time media streams, and other components of internet delivery (DNS, routes, and database queries).

Why to choose a Content Delivery Network?

CDN can be very useful for websites that stream large amount of content in the form of images and videos. CDN offers a way to segregate the portal from its content, which means content is delivered from another set of servers. For example, a website that gets 10 million hits a day serves 20 million banner ads. These 20 million banner impressions can be served by an external CDN network, while ad serving engine can be hosted by the server where website is hosted.

CDN Advantages

  • no need for new expensive routing and server hardware
  • no extra dedicated line or collocation space rental
  • easy and hassle-free service activation
  • increases your web site visitor satisfaction
  • reach out to more customers and new markets
  • lowers cost of content delivery - bandwidth
  • virtually unlimited global scalability at the fraction of the cost
  • increases site speed and performance
  • easily handles peak-time load without expanding current infrastructure
  • offloads your web site and application server load
  • accelerates web-based applications
  • low connectivity latency
  • extra reliability and uptime
  • avoids oversaturated traffic points
  • multiple network paths
  • multiple upstream providers
  • optimize hosting spending by segregating content
  • easy bandwidth scaling
  • serve content from servers nearest end user based on geo targeting
  • build failover in to your content streaming so that other servers take over if one server fails
  • easy integration with your website