What is CDN?
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of geographically distributed servers that cache website content (images, CSS, JS, videos) and deliver from the nearest location. Benefits: Faster loading times globally (less latency), reduced server load, DDoS protection, improved availability, better Core Web Vitals. Popular CDN providers: Cloudflare (also free), Vercel Edge Network, AWS CloudFront, Akamai, Fastly. Implementation: DNS redirect or origin pull. For static websites, CDNs can also enable edge computing. A CDN is especially important for international websites and large media files.
Key Points
- Global server network for content
- Reduces latency through proximity
- Offloads origin server
- DDoS protection included
- Providers: Cloudflare, Vercel, AWS
- Especially important for international sites
Practical Example
“After CDN implementation, our loading time for US visitors dropped from 3s to 0.8s.”