What is CDN and Why Does it Matter to Your Business?

As an online marketer, you might have heard the term CDN quite often. But ever wondered, what is CDN? Let us help you find the answer to that. Keep reading to know more about CDN and how it matters to your business.

What is CDN?

A CDN, or Content Delivery Network, is a highly-distributed platform of servers that reduces the physical distance between the user and the server and thereby minimizes delays in loading web page content. This helps users all over the world view the same high-quality content without delay in loading speed. This means that for a fully-functioning powerful website, you not only need the services of a website development company but also an efficient CDN.

Without a content delivery network, the content origin servers will have to respond to the individual end-user request. This causes major traffic to the original source and the subsequent load. This in turn increases the chances for origin failure when the load is persistent or when the traffic spikes are exceptionally high.

A CDN responds to the end-user requests in place of origin and connects to the closest network and physical proximity to the user. This way the content delivery network offloads traffic from servers and improves the overall web experience. Consequently, benefitting both the end-users and the content provider.

How CDN works?

Now that we know the definition of CDN, let us find out how CDN works. More than half of the traffic on the internet is served by a CDN. By reducing the physical distance that a user request has to travel, a CDN aims to reduce latency. That is the delay between the submission of a request for a web page and the full loading of that web page on a device.

To get a better idea of how CDN works, let us take a small example. Suppose, a visitor from the US wishes to view content that originates at a UK-based server. He/she will experience slow loading speed if their request has to travel across the Atlantic. To combat this delay, CDNs follow a systematic procedure. They store a cached version of the website content in various geographical locations around the world. They are known as points of presence (PoPs). These PoPs contain their own caching servers and are responsible for the deliverance of that content in the user’s location.

Let’s further elaborate on this concept of how CDN works. The devices running web browsers, which are also known as user-agents, make requests for content that is needed to render web pages. These contents include images, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. With most CDNs, individual requests for content will lead the end-user to be mapped to an optimally-located CDN server. Subsequently, this server will respond with the cached (pre-saved) version of the requested content.

If it fails to locate the content, it will look for the files on other servers in the CDN platform and send the appropriate response to the end-user. Whereas, when the content is stale or unavailable, the content delivery network will act as a request proxy to the origin server and store the fetched content to serve requests in the future. So, make sure you have a live website with appealing content that is easily available to be fetched. You can take the help of reputed content marketing services to generate effective and user-friendly content for your website.

While the delivery of website content is the most common use of CDN, it is not the only type of content a CDN can deliver. Content delivery networks deliver a wide variety of content that includes audio streams, 4K and HD-quality videos, OS updates, software downloads like games, and apps, and much more. Technically, any data that can be digitized can be delivered through a CDN.

What is a CDN provider?

A CDN provider is a vendor that offers businesses the ability to serve their content to users across the globe over a content delivery network. There are several reputed vendors in the market that offer CDN services, not to be mistaken with a company offering content management services.

Why you need a CDN?

CDNs offer a simple way to lower the latency of a website while increasing the speed. Therefore, they are necessary for the efficient, fast, and secure delivery of content to users across the world. With the attention spans of website visitors growing shorter by the day, it is necessary to deliver the content a fast as possible.

As more and more businesses go online, and the world comes together on the internet to connect, shop, and share, content providers face an array of challenges. Some of those challenges include adjusting the content for different devices, delivery of different types of content, and securing the data of the end-users. The multiple capabilities of a content delivery network mean that CDN providers are usually positioned to help business owners overcome these challenges of media delivery.

Summary

For the last two decades, CDNs have been the unseen backbone of the internet. It has been delivering online content for finance, retail, healthcare, and other businesses to users around the world at scale and with speed. If you have been online, then you have benefitted from a content delivery network — whether you knew it or not.

Along with a CDN provider, you also need the right content management system to develop an effective web presence. If you have difficulty finding the right CMS for your website, here is a guide to help you choose the ideal CMS. Make the right choice and grow your business online