If you are in the United States and you are accessing a website that is based in Asia or some other distant location, chances are you are viewing its contents through a content delivery network (CDN). Most websites nowadays rely on CDNs to ensure optimum responsiveness and quick page loading times.
Content delivery networks are already a staple in establishing a global online presence nowadays. Businesses that want to be competitive online have to make their websites more easily accessible, and CDNs are one of the best ways to do it. It is not a stretch to say that content delivery networks have made the internet better than it was.
CDN: the basics
What is a CDN? How does it work? One clear and concise definition is that a CDN is a group of geographically-distributed servers that speed up the delivery of web content by bringing it physically closer to where users are.
CDNs address the issue of latency or the delay that exists between the time a request is made to load a web content or service to the time that the content appears on the screen of the requester.
CDNs significantly reduce latency for access to websites that are hosted from across the world. One CDN provider based in Amsterdam, for example, did a test and found that latency for Amsterdam-to-Asia-Pacific connections typically goes well above 200 milliseconds (259.8 ms for Singapore, 286.3 ms for Sydney, and 255.7 ms for Tokyo). These numbers drop to single digits when the service is used, the study found.
For a more realistic representation of the latency reduction benefits, though, there’s a survey on the latency of leading CDNs conducted by the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre.
The survey showed that average latency falls to a range of 36 ms to 48 ms when websites use CDNs. It’s not a massive three-to-single-digit drop, but it’s definitely very significant.
Content delivery networks work by bringing web content physically closer to the location of visitors. This is done by caching the content of a website in different servers scattered in different parts of the world.
When a visitor loads a page of a website located far from the visitor’s location, the cached copy of the content in a server nearest to the visitor is what is sent instead of sending content directly from the main or original server of a website.
Contrary to what many tend to think, the “virtual” world of the internet is still bound by the rules of real-life physics. Data takes time to be transmitted over vast distances, and thus faster over shorter distances.
Page loading time would be longer if a website only has a single server located far from the visitor. With CDNs, distant visitors can load web pages or content faster because the data is sourced from a cached copy in a server close to the visitors.
How CDNs made the internet better
So CDNs lower latency; how does that exactly improve the internet? The benefits can be likened to the progression of wireless communications technology. From 2G to 3G to 4G and now 5G, there’s no doubt that the world has seen significant improvements with the rollout of newer generations of wireless tech.
The faster speeds of 3G made it possible to send multimedia messages (MMS) and view websites on mobile devices. The faster 4G paved the way for a much bigger mobile video streaming and gaming industry.
Mobile apps also became an industry of their own. Then came 5G and the advent of self-driving cars, which require the lowest possible latency afforded by 5G to ensure accurate navigation and automated situational awareness.
With CDNs, the significant speed improvement creates a number of benefits, not only in terms of reducing waiting time for page loading. The following advantages also make for a noticeably better internet.
1. Creating similar experiences for website visitors everywhere
As mentioned, page loading times become slower as the physical distance between a website’s main server and its visitors increases.
This is particularly noticeable in websites with “heavy” content, usually consisting of videos, high-resolution images, and interactive elements. CDNs “equalize” the web browsing experience for everyone, regardless of location.
2. Helping online businesses expand regionally or globally
The faster page loading time means online businesses can attract customers in distant locations without the problem of turning off potential customers because of poor page responsiveness.
Amazon, for example, has been using CDNs to ensure consistent website performance for all customers regardless of location.
3. Reducing downtimes
CDNs serve as a buffer for web content availability. There are times when technical issues affect the original content of a website, which would normally lead to downtime.
Because of content delivery networks, the same content continues to be available in a way because there are copies cached in multiple servers, which are the ones accessed by visitors in certain areas. There’s no doubt that fewer downtimes are a boon for the internet.
4. Faster downloads and better gaming
Imagine subscribing to a 1 GBP internet plan and finding out that your downloads can’t even hit a tenth of your subscribed speed. This is not necessarily the fault of your internet service provider.
This can definitely happen if you download files from servers in locations on the opposite side of the world (relative to your location). Fortunately, many websites now use CDNs to facilitate considerably faster downloads.
Even video gaming enthusiasts benefit from CDNs, although not in terms of reducing gaming lags. This is something addressed through other means. The benefit created by CDNs is in the faster downloading of game installers, core downloads, patches, and updates.
The quick delivery of game files has been a major challenge for many gaming companies. Content delivery networks offer an excellent way around this problem. Multiple CDN servers in a single country or region to address traffic spikes at specific times of the day.
5. Improving security and site traffic handling
Many of the CDNs at present are designed to be capable of analyzing traffic and detecting malicious spikes that could indicate a DDoS attack.
Since they are deployed on the edge of an organization’s network, they essentially serve as a durable barrier that can keep out a flood of illegitimate or unwanted traffic.
There are also CDNs designed for load balancing. With reverse proxy topology, CDNs get enhanced traffic flow visibility that helps avoid traffic jams. They can accurately determine the number of pending requests on each of the backend servers, which facilitates improved load distribution.
Delivering a better internet
Content delivery networks have been in existence since the late 1990s, and they have evolved and improved over the years. Much of what the internet has become now would not be possible without the creation and continuous improvement of CDNs.
Certainly, this technology is still far from achieving its final stage. There are more enhancements to come and more benefits for CDNs to impart to the modern internet.
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