CDN Services|What is Content Delivery Network (CDN) ?
what is a CDN ?
Wikipedia has the following definition: “ A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a large distributed system of servers deployed in multiple data centers across the Internet. The goal of a CDN is to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance. CDNs serve a large fraction of the Internet content today, including web objects (text, graphics and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live streaming media, on-demand streaming media, and social networks.”
How does it work ?
Contents ( mainly static contents such as HTML files, imagery and Javascript ) are copied to a number of server nodes spreading throughout the world. When visitors make a request to a website ( the origin server) in their browser,CDN works by directing the optimum server(based on location and availability) to respond to the request. Contents from the optimum server will thus be transferred to the user, minimizing the distance travelled. Since a large proportion of page load time is due to retrieving the static content, it can obviously shorten the response and download time.
Main advantage of CDN
The most noticeable advantage is a significant increase in speed and thus ensure your website visitors to have more desirable web browsing experience.
When should you consider CDN ?
If you are hosting your website only in a particular place such as in Hong Kong, but your website is an international one where there are many visitors coming from different places around the world. They may not have the fast browsing experience as you do. If your visitors are demanding shorter page load time, maybe it is time for you to consider using a CDN services. Many research has proven even one second delay will cause up to 7% loss in customer conversion.
Are you considering using CDN to take your website performance to another level?
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