Girish
Votes: 0Posted On: Jun 21, 2017 02:12:52
What is a CDN?
CDN - Content Delivery Network
It is a network of servers that are strategically dispersed across the globe (geographically). A Content Delivery Network (CDN) works by providing alternative server nodes for users to download resources.
Since these nodes are spread across the world it gives strategic advantage to the user closer to it by providing faster response and download time of content due to reduced latency.
How does it work?
The purpose of each CDN node is to cache the static content (images, css/js files, components) of the site.
This provides building blocks of a site in as many server node as possible that can be smartly distributed across the globe. So when a user requests a site, the node closest to the user will deliver the data ensuring reduced latency and providing fastest site experience.
What role does it play for a website?
Let us consider an example here that will give you the exact idea of how CDN can be useful for your website especially when you have customer spread across the world.
Now, if you have a website hosted in the US, your customer from the US might get the best user experience while browsing the site. However, your customers located in Asia may experience some latency while browsing your site. This is because everytime the request made from a country in Asia has to cross multiple hops and get back again with the requested data.
A global CDN would allow users from Asia to download static content from a closer source. So let's say they can connect to a server located in India to get the same data. This reduces latency and provides a faster loading of your website.