In this article, we will discuss a reliable step that can be taken to speed up any type of website i.e. by using Content Delivery Network (CDN). Here, we will describe what a CDM really is, how does it work and how will it help you to improve the loading time of your website.
So, let’s get began:
Table of Contents
What is CDN?
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a geographically distributed group of servers that work together to deliver the static contents of a website (images, CSS, JavaScript, and videos) from the closest location. It is a popular service network and is used by many popular websites like Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, etc that contain a large number of traffics.
How does CDN work?
A CDN stores a cached version of its contents in multiple geographical locations named PoPs (Points of Presence) or data centers that minimizes the distance between the visitors and your site’s server. Each of these PoPs contains numerous caching servers that deliver the contents to the visitors from its proximity. So, through CDN your contents will be cached from many places at once and will provide broad coverage from the nearest data centers. Therefore, the time is taken to handle user requests and deliver a response decreases.
How does CDN help to speed up your website?
Since CDN stores and contributes multiple content types from the shortest locations, your website resource consumption rate will be low. Therefore, your website will provide better performance on its loading speed and enable your visitors to quickly browse your website.
How much will CDN costs?
Most of the CDNs are 3rd party paid services and can be ranged from expensive, high-end setups for enterprises to cost-effective small/medium scale website-oriented solutions.
The total cost of CDN depends on the bandwidth, region reach, SSL securities, etc. It does not have prohibitive costs and can be easily accessible to the website owners of various budgets.
Some of the Famous CDN Available to Speed Up Your Website:
Akamai
Akamai is globally known for speeding up networks and connections. They have a strong infrastructure that speeds up the websites and makes things better for online users. It works in big brands and large businesses in general. It is commonly used by websites with huge traffic pages or well-established brands.
MaxCDN
MaxCDN is a Los Angeles, California-based company founded in 2009. It has fast servers and a big community of users/webmasters all around the world. It provides one of the fastest response times and flexible pricing models. Their CDNs are used for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, OpenCart, and PrestaShop applications. It delivers the stateless routing for one to nearest content delivery over multiple 10 Gbit/s connection. It is mostly used by blogging websites and gaming platforms.
Imperva Incapsula
Imperva Incapsula is a cloud-based application delivery platform. It uses the global content delivery network to provide web security, DDoS protection, load balancing, and failover services to the clients. It is stationed in Redwood Shores, CA. They offer CDNs paired with web security combined with balancer technology for handling traffic between servers. The company works for popular websites like Moz, Wix, SIEMENS.
Rackspace
Rackspace was founded in 1998. It is a cloud computing-based company based in Windcrest, Texas. It is unique for its cloud file storage system and “pay as you go” business models. They provide a secured environment for hosting a large number of files and static websites. It provides well-protected infrastructures for its customers.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare is one of the fastest-growing Saas providers in the security and performance spaces that encompass DNS, CDN, WAF, and DDOS mitigation. It operates the most efficient DNS service and provides performance, security, and access inside the China network to over 6+ million websites, applications, and APIs. Its office is located in San Francisco, London, and Singapore, and is backed by US $180M in funding from Google, Baidu, Microsoft, and Qualcomm. It offers self-service or enterprise plans that are suitable for small, medium, and very large scale customers.
Fastly
Fastly is one of the latest CDN founded in 2011. Its office is located in San Francisco. Its global network is built with 10 GB Ethernet, multi-core CPUs, and SSDs. They offer access to real-time performance analytics and have the ability to cache frequently changing contents.
