A content delivery network (CDN) is a group of servers located in many different locations to support content spread across many different geographical areas. Let’s find out more about what a CDN is!
CDNs are also referred to as “distribution networks”. The idea is to create multiple access points (Point of Presence – PoPs) in addition to the original server. This helps the website to better manage traffic by processing customer requests faster, increasing the user experience.
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You are using a CDN when you visit high traffic eCommerce websites like Amazon or communicate with your friends on Facebook. The data centers of these websites around the world connect to each other and create the closest point of access based on the user’s geographical location, without being affected by where the original website is located.
By dispersing the system over a large area, the website can reduce bandwidth consumption and page load time, and be able to handle many concurrent requests.
Understanding Content
There are 2 types of content: dynamic and static. Static content is the initial content (input) and the final content that others see (output). It does not change over time by user impact. The server will transmit the same data to everyone. The process is that the user requests a file A from the web server, the server will return that file A.
So, how does a CDN work
?Cyberspace is a concept that ordinary users can hardly imagine. You sit at home, in Saigon, type information into the search engine or type the website address into the browser, you press enter and wait.
From a location you do not know, possibly far away from you, your request is recorded. Billions of bits of information are distributed, transmitted from the original server to your computer or phone. Most web pages contain hundreds of elements ranging from plain text to interactive multimedia content that is about to be transmitted over the internet.
So it also makes sense that the closer you are to the source of the content, the faster your request will be processed.
In a server network system, the server closest to the computer that issued the request will handle the request. By storing temporary information everywhere in the system instead of storing it centrally in one server, the load bandwidth will be more balanced. This reduces previous problems such as slow page load times, browser crashes, service interruptions.
What are the advantages of using a CDN
? Its advantages will depend on the size of the website, its position relative to the original data, and the amount of traffic generated. A company that sells locally, catering to nearby buyers, won’t benefit much from a CDN.
However, if you are an eCommerce eCommerce business, you need to reach more people in more locations. Or your website has a lot of traffic from many different locations. So, an effective CDN will save you from having to sacrifice the advantage of the interface that searchers and users prefer.
Let’s take a look at the four main benefits of a content delivery network. Each of these benefits interacts with each other, to reduce problems arising from complex content sources, and large volumes of traffic.
A content delivery network (CDN) will need to meet these four requirements:
Reduce bandwidth
The biggest problem that hosting services often face is bandwidth. CDNs handle large amounts of bandwidth by splitting access points, so the primary cost of bandwidth to the primary access point is reduced, and therefore costs are reduced.
This is done thanks to system optimization tools such as caching, placing data in temporary storage areas on different computers or on different devices.
Speed up
One of the biggest factors that increase bounce rate is latency. Latency is the time it takes to transfer data back and forth between the user and the server hosting the website. It is affected by:
File read delay due to blocked storageDelay processing file from serverFile transfer protocol, for example optical network will be faster than coaxial cableBroadcast speed and data transfer rate from one machine to another
The above problems can be solved, or reduced, thanks to a good distributed content network
Improve security
As all transmitted data is processed at a single server, it is more vulnerable to attacks like DDoS – denial of service, and other problems.
They are a type of attack that transmits a lot of information from many different locations and users at the same time specified; This activity can also be deployed by bots. The purpose is to cause the server to be overloaded and crash due to too much traffic.
This activity can last several hours or even days, making the website inaccessible to ordinary users. Using a DDoS filter and dispersing queries for processing in different locations will somewhat reduce, or prevent such traffic spikes.
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You can also use a CDN to protect against hackers from accessing sensitive information. This is thanks to CDNs that continuously refresh TLS/SSL certificates, providing higher authentication and encryption. They also distribute traffic away from the main server to proxies.
Improve content delivery
Heavy traffic, unstable hardware can cause downtime and most websites cannot accept this. By distributing content in a content delivery network, you will have less traffic.
Now, who needs a CDN? What types of websites need to use a CDN:
E-Commerce – E-Commerce Talking about E-Commerce is talking about a large amount of traffic from all over the world. Products may be diverse, but users have very little time. If the website does not meet the necessary information in 1 second, the opportunity to reach customers will be lost. E-commerce needs a CDN to handle requests from different places. By storing content available at the nearest location, a CDN can also prevent a sudden increase in traffic on the server. Advertising When approaching the digital world, advertising services use many media parameter. They are more engaging, contain more information, and are more personal. But, the problem is: multimedia files take up more resources. The worst possible scenario is, a website with multimedia-based ad is slow to load. The slower a website is, the faster users will leave. Such advertising agency needs CDN to solve this problem. CDN caches temporary content from the nearest server, for transmission to the user, so the content plays faster. Page load time is reduced to a minimum, website performance will be increased. Online games If an advertising business needs a lot of resources for content, online games need a lot of resources. This is the biggest challenge facing the gaming industry: to deliver the best content while avoiding lag issues. CDN technology gives online games a “buffer zone” – so that developers can store all their games on the CDN server. Under these circumstances, direct requests to the origin server would no longer be needed or minimized,Entertainment Content is the heart of the entertainment and media industry. From download to streaming, entertainment content has attracted millions of people around the world. Website owners, if they have good content, also need to ensure that they have specific strategies for the website to run perfectly. Again, the CDN contains these temporarily, so it’s a lifesaver for a smooth, uninterrupted service. A copy of the file is stored in multiple servers ready to be transmitted according to the user’s physical location. It speeds up the processing of such content-related services.
Frequently asked questions about CDNs
If you are the type of person who loves to learn, and is always asking questions about everything, here is some essential information for you about CDNs.
How does a CDN speed up your website
?There are 3 ways to make a good CDN faster on page load times.
By dispersing and storing content such as images, documents, media files.By saving the bandwidth of the origin server, transmit the content across different locations closest to the user.By processing the amount of Traffic spikes during holidays or urgent matters without service interruption.
What kind of website benefits from a CDN
?Any B2B or B2C website with users outside of the region selling products can benefit from a CDN. They are also useful for bloggers and websites with high traffic.
Are CDNs safe
?Yes. Since they are deployed on a large network, they create a “buffer” connection between the origin server and the user. CDNs act as another layer of security, surrounding your system’s internal network.
What is the difference between a VPN and a CDN
?The speed of a content delivery network depends on the server’s network, allowing visitors to access your website to the server closest to them.
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) help to hide the identity of end users by using a computer other than their own as an access point to the website server. This gives users access to content that is blocked at their location, but not at the VPN server.
VPNs and CDNs are both used to improve security and accessibility, but for different purposes.
Is a CDN the same as hosting
?CDNs don’t contain a website like a web hosting service does, it just stores a temporary version of that website’s content (not including other components of the website). website) should be able to increase website speed. It also optimizes that content, so the bandwidth of the web server is minimized. Not only does it improve speed, it also helps avoid service interruptions, poor security, and slow content transfers.
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In short, a web hosting service provides the foundation to host your website, while a CDN provides a buffer zone to transmit that website more effectively. As a result, visitors will be more satisfied and business costs will be reduced.
