CDNs accelerate content delivery by serving cached resources from edge servers near users, reducing latency and protecting origin infrastructure from traffic spikes.
Why it matters
- Reduces page load times by 50-80% for globally distributed users.
- Offloads bandwidth from origin servers, cutting infrastructure costs.
- Provides DDoS protection by absorbing malicious traffic at the edge.
- Improves SEO rankings through faster page performance metrics.
- Ensures availability during traffic surges or origin outages.
How it works
- Edge Servers: Globally distributed cache nodes that store content copies.
- Origin Server: Primary infrastructure that holds authoritative content.
- Cache Control: HTTP headers define what content is cached and for how long.
- Anycast Routing: Directs users to the nearest available edge server.
- Cache Invalidation: Purges outdated content across the network.
What CDNs deliver
- Static Assets: Images, CSS, JavaScript, fonts, and downloadable files.
- Dynamic Content: API responses and personalized pages via edge compute.
- Video Streaming: Adaptive bitrate streaming for media content.
- Software Distribution: Application updates and package downloads.
Security benefits
- DDoS mitigation through distributed traffic absorption.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) integration at the edge.
- TLS/SSL offloading and certificate management.
- Bot detection and rate limiting capabilities.
Performance optimization
- Image optimization and format conversion (WebP, AVIF).
- Brotli and Gzip compression for text assets.
- HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 protocol support.
- Edge compute for dynamic content transformation.
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View all termsAPI Gateway
A service that acts as a single entry point for API requests, handling routing, authentication, rate limiting, and other cross-cutting concerns.
Read more →AWS (Amazon Web Services)
Amazon's comprehensive cloud computing platform offering over 200 services for compute, storage, databases, networking, security, and application development.
Read more →Azure (Microsoft Azure)
Microsoft's cloud computing platform providing integrated services for compute, analytics, storage, networking, AI, and enterprise applications.
Read more →Docker
A platform for developing, shipping, and running applications in lightweight, portable containers that package code with all its dependencies.
Read more →Kubernetes
An open-source container orchestration platform that automates deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications across clusters of hosts.
Read more →Load Balancer
A system that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers to ensure high availability, reliability, and optimal resource utilization.
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