Many of us don’t know clearly about the CDN and what is its function. I have seen lots of queries are on the Quora and different forum regarding the matter. That’s why I have decided to write on the topic. So, let’s get started.
What is CDN?
CND is an acronym for Content Delivery Network that is essentially a network of cache based server which usually caches static content from the websites and deliver them to users based on the geographic location of the respective user.
Seems bit messy? Ok, let’s make it simpler.
Usually, when a user comes to any website, suppose your WordPress blog, they are simply redirected to the respective web host’s server. Suppose, your host’s server is located at the central location of Clifton, New Jersey, and users on your site are accessing this one server to view your website.
In this case, if you have a high volume of traffic, then your server can overload that might be the cause of server crash or slow down your loading speed. This is where the CDN plays a role to fix the issue. CDN comes with a handy solution that ensures the balance of your server. This is a network of multiple servers around the world. When you use CDN, your static contents are cached and stored throughout the world using these caching servers. Basically static contents are images, stylesheets(CSS), javascript, etc. When everything is ok, when a user comes to your original site, the CDN technology redirects them to the nearest server to the respective location of that person.
For instance, I can tell you, if your principal server is hosted in Clifton, New Jersey, and someone from Toronto, Canada wants to access to your site, then the person will be redirected to the nearest server of his/her location. The process of redirection to the closest server limits the internet hops that requires for transmitting the static files to your target audiences.
Why do you need CDN?
The above sections clearly signify that having a CDN makes a huge impact on your website. Therefore, I am putting some advantages in below that you can have using the CDN on your site:
Faster Content Delivery: Using CDN on your site, you will get higher reliability to deliver contents with a high level of service. This will ensure your fast content delivery capability as a whole.
Smooth User Experience: Once you will start using CDN, your users will get a smooth experience coming to your site. This will enhance your site’s impression to the greater sense.
Site Speed: This is the most crucial part of using CDN. Once you start using the CDN on your site, you will see that your site got faster.
Optimized SEO: As Google algorithm prefers the loading-fast website, using CDN you will get extra benefits ranks your website in the search engine.
Security: CDNs also offer a secure storage capacity for contents and the improved data backup facility. It secures contents through digital rights management and limits the unauthentic access through user authentication as well.
I hope this article helped you to make you understand about the CDN and its necessity in general. If you have anything to share regarding the context, please make me know through leaving a comment in the below.