CDN (Content Delivery Networks)

Content delivery networks (CDN) are the internet’s transparent backbone responsible for delivering content. We all communicate with CDNs on a regular basis, whether we know it or not; whether we read stories on news outlets, shop online, watch YouTube videos, and read social media feeds.

Regardless of what you do or what kind of content you use, you will probably find CDNs behind every text character, every image pixel, and every video frame sent to your PC and mobile browsers.

To order to understand why CDNs are used so commonly, you have to consider the question they are intended to address. This is the irritating pause from the moment you order a webpage to be loaded to the moment when it finally appears on the screen, known as latency.

Imperva CDN Guide: What a CDN This delay period has a variety of variables, many of which are unique to a certain web page. In all instances, however, it is influenced by the physical distance between you and the hosting server of this website.

The goal of a CDN is practically to cut the physical gap, with the intention of improving the pace and efficiency of the site.

How a CDN Works?

A CDN stores a cached version of its content in various geographical locations (e.g., points of presence, or PoPs), in order to reduce the distance between visitors and the server on your site. Each PoP includes a variety of caching servers that provide content to visitors nearby.

Essentially, CDN brings the content in several areas at once, offering the users superior coverage. If anyone in London, for instance, accesses your website hosting in the US, it is done through a local UK PoP. It’s much simpler than getting your user requests and answers across the Atlantic and back.

That’s how a CDN functions briefly. Of course, because we felt that we needed a full guide to clarify the internal workings of content distribution networks, the rabbit hole goes deeper.