Why Use a Content Delivery Network with Your Website

A content delivery network, or CDN, is a collection of servers situated in various geographic locations all linked to one other by way of the Internet. The purpose of a CDN is twofold, delivering speed and reliability to the end user. Due to the complex nature of websites and powerful tools needed to push information to the user, CDNs have become mainstream. CDNs store multiple forms of data used to deliver websites to the masses, including web objects, downloadable objects, applications, streaming media, and social networks. Yes, the reason Facebook and Twitter feeds update so fast is due to their use of CDNs.

The beauty of CDNs lie in their intelligence. When a query is run, three specific actions occur. The CDN almost instantly recognizes:

• The geographic location of the user
• The nearest location on the Internet where the data being requested is stored
• The quickest route, based on both geography and web traffic, that gets the result back to that user by way of CDSs

Content Delivery Networks and your Business

It is clear that any business can benefit from using a CDN. So much involving the Internet is based on speed, including where your business appears in Google search results. Yes, speed is a factor in your business’ placement. Therefore, a CDN will not only contribute to higher rankings, but also appeal to the user who can view your site on the fly, resulting in increased customer satisfaction. In addition, CDNs offer your business lower infrastructure costs, backup in case a server is down, the ability to handle multiple requests simultaneously, and potential increase in sales which is the ultimate goal.

The Industry’s Top Content Delivery Networks

Akamai

Akamai is the most widely used CDN in the world and was started by a group of people from MIT in 1998. Estimates state that 15 – 30 percent of all Internet traffic goes through Akamai’s servers. First quarter results from 2012 state that Akamai has over 108, 507 servers deployed worldwide. This allows them to accommodate many of the world’s biggest websites including Facebook, Adobe and Twitter. http://www.akamai.com/

Amazon CloudFront

Amazon Web Services first offered their CDN in 2008. Their pay-as-you-go model has allowed them to not only compete with Akamai and some of the bigger CDNs, but also gives smaller websites access to features that were out of their expense range. CloudFront has edge location in the United States, Europe, Asia and South America. http://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/

CloudFlare

CloudFlare was created in 2009 with the ambition to revolutionize the content delivery network market. This was done through their extremely easy to use service and free service tier. While they do not have as many data centers as the bigger providers, they do have 14 data center around the world. This allows them to offer a quality service for free and an even better service for those willing to pay a little more. http://www.cloudflare.com/