A Content Delivery Network (CDN) consists of a group of servers that distribute content. The main goal of a CDN is to store and rapidly deliver static content according to the geographical distance between the origin server (the server where your site is hosted) and the user requesting the data. This means that if someone in Japan accesses your website that is hosted in the United States, it will load as quickly as a website hosted in Japan.
The benefits of using a CDN are:
- Improved content availability and redundancy – Heavy traffic or server malfunctions can lead to your website being unavailable; a Content Delivery Network (CDN) balances the demand, allowing your site to accommodate higher traffic levels and withstand hardware failures more effectively than relying on a single origin server.
- Improved load times – Content is delivered to users from a point of presence (PoP) that is nearer to their location compared to the origin server, resulting in quicker load times for your website.
- Increased security – A CDN enhances security by reducing the impact of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, shielding against exploit vulnerabilities, and thwarting brute force attacks on your website’s login pages, among other protections.
Not every CDN functions in the same way. There are CDNs designed for static asset caching and those that provide full-page caching. The distinction lies in the level of server load that is managed by the global network of servers. Full-page caching enhances your server’s performance by not only distributing static assets but also the snippets of code and data from your website’s database.
The illustration on the left depicts a network lacking a CDN. Each user retrieves content from the same central server, regardless of their geographical position. In contrast, the illustration on the right illustrates a network utilizing a CDN, where each visitor obtains the same content from a nearby server.
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