CDN uses caching and distribution technology to store content on servers around the world, and transmits content from the server closest to the user to the user according to the user's location and network conditions. When a user requests to visit a website or resource, CDN will automatically select the server closest to the user to provide content, thus speeding up content loading and improving the user experience.
The role and five advantages of using CDN on websites:
1. Improve website performance: CDN reduces the delay of content transmission and network congestion by caching content closer to users, thus improving the loading speed and response speed of websites.
2. Improve the user experience: faster page loading speed and smooth content transmission can improve the user experience and reduce the waiting time and user churn rate.
3. Reduce the load on the source server: CDN reduces the load pressure on the source server and improves the performance and reliability of the source server by distributing some requests to edge nodes and cache servers for processing.
4. Guarantee website security: CDN usually provides security measures such as DDoS attack protection, security authentication and data encryption, which can effectively protect websites from network attacks and data leakage.
5. Global coverage and scalability: CDN can cover users worldwide through distributed edge nodes, and has good scalability. It can dynamically adjust the network size and resource allocation according to needs.
Main components of CDN:
1. Edge node: The core of CDN is a server network composed of edge nodes located around the world. These edge nodes are usually located in the Internet Exchange Point (IXP) or the data center of the cloud service provider, and can quickly respond to user requests and transmit content.
2. Cache server: CDN edge nodes are usually equipped with cache servers to store and cache copies of websites or resources. When a user requests access to a resource, the CDN will automatically obtain content from the cache server, thus reducing the access pressure on the source server and improving the content transmission speed.
3. Load balancer: CDN usually uses load balancing technology to distribute user requests to different edge nodes and cache servers to ensure fast transmission and high availability of content.
Types of enterprises that benefit from using CDN
Any enterprise with online business can benefit from using CDN. Achieve a better customer experience by reducing network connectivity disruptions.
The following are some more common business areas where CDNs are often found:
E-commerce – Enterprises operating in this field rely heavily on CDN to ensure that their products can be purchased 24/7. Companies with continuous uptime can serve a broader audience and often have better customer retention. Both contribute to maximizing profits.
Education - In the past decade, the rise of online courses has been greatly developed. Now, people from all over the world can take the same course without leaving their homes. Many of these courses require students to stream audio and video lectures. Using CDN ensures that no matter where participants are located on the server, their user experience will not be affected.
Streaming Media and Entertainment – Many media and advertising websites use streaming media services to provide content to users. This process can be enhanced with CDN to ensure that no network disruption or delay occurs regardless of where the user is.
Online gaming – gaming is one of the most demanding applications, not only because of the huge amount of data and transactions, but also because there are too many players connected at the same time. In order to maximize the uptime, game companies must implement powerful systems with the highest availability, reliability, fault tolerance and scalability. These CDN functions are essential to ensure that gamers can access their games when they want to play.
CDN (Content Distribution Network) is a network architecture designed to quickly deliver content (static or dynamic resources such as web pages, images, videos, etc.) to users to improve website performance, availability and security. It caches and delivers content by deploying servers globally, enabling users to obtain the content they need from a closer location with more optimized network topology.
