Best CDN Providers: An Overview

Web applications use uploader feature to allow their users to upload images, videos, and other types of files. As these files are usually large in size, they take time to download when it’s necessary. This is whether the need for CDN providers arises. Over time, the use of CDN has been a very important need for websites for performance gain.

Setting up a CDN is easy and won’t take more than 5 minutes. Also, as some might think, CDN networks are not just for big businesses. If you pick your product and plans carefully, it won’t cost you much. In this article, we talk about the benefits of CDN providers and we introduce the Best CDN providers in the market.

What is CDN?

A content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of servers and data centers dispersed throughout the globe. It enables the delivery of material with extremely low latency while supporting several concurrent users. CDN providers try to solve the problem of network congestion. Nowadays, most web applications use a lot of rich media resources like graphics and videos. This overall causes a traffic jam in networks. However, competition between these web services doesn’t allow them to have any performance loss. CDN providers guarantee that the material produced by web applications reaches users at high speeds, and without any quality loss.

How does CDN work?

CDN providers has a collection of servers that delivers material from a source server to end users around the globe by caching content nearby each user’s point of internet access. They initially request content from the origin server, which they copy and store as necessary elsewhere. They decrease the latency by physically storing content close to the user and minimizing the distance content has to travel. CDN providers have their servers across thousands of Points of Presence (PoP) all over the world. By dispersing the load geographically among several servers, this approach also lessens the strain on the origin servers.

This implies that the content you would like to view will load faster rapidly regardless of where in the world you are using your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or another internet-capable device.

Benefits of using CDN

The advantages of utilizing a CDN change based on the scope and requirements of the web application. However, the main advantages for the majority of users can be divided into five categories:

Speeds Up Website Load Time

Users see quicker page loading times thanks to optimizations such as employing a nearby CDN server to distribute material closer to website visitors. A CDN can lower bounce rates and lengthen visitors’ stays on the site because visitors are more likely to leave a slow-loading site. In other words, more users will stay on a website longer if the server load quickly.

Reduces Bandwidth Consumption Costs

A major cost for websites is the consumption of bandwidth for hosting. You can reduce the quantity of data that an origin server needs to provide by CDNs via caching and other improvements. This also lowers hosting expenses for site owners.

Increases Content Availability

Businesses must guarantee high content available on their websites to meet the rising consumer needs in today’s media-rich internet environment. The strain on the original servers to keep their websites from going down and to maintain the availability of their content increases as the volume of traffic increases.

Increases Content Redundancy

Large volumes of traffic or technical issues can prevent a website from operating normally. A CDN can manage more traffic and resist hardware failure quicker than multiple origin servers because of its globally distributed network.

Improving Website Security

Website security is increased because of CDN services. By distributing material among their servers, CDNs assist prevent web server overloads and can be an effective defense against cyberattacks that rely on delivering traffic spikes to important servers.

This is notably useful in DDoS assaults, where the attacker’s goal is to overwhelm a crucial DNS server by flooding it with queries.

CDN features you need to look for

To make life easier, we have summed up 5 of the best features you need to look for in your CDN provider:

Global Scale Network

Every area you want to enter must have a network presence. The provider should be a global content delivery network and can deal with this by using its own servers and data centers, collaborating with a local carrier or public cloud, or even using virtual machines.

Low Latency

Latency, which is effectively the beginning of content delivery, is the time from data generation and data transmission at consumer endpoints. By placing its centers close to the user and through route optimization, CDN providers can reduce latency.

Stringent Security Measures

When choosing CDN providers you need to take strict security precautions because online content might be vulnerable to a variety of dangers. Support for HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is required in this situation, however, firewalls, advanced threat detection, and security analytics are optional.

Cloud Compatibility

The CDN providers should be able to transport content over the public, private, hybrid, and multi-clouds from any storage environment. For easier maintenance, you should also be capable of hosting a cloud CDN.

Advanced Analytics

CDN providers offer advanced analytics with metrics that include valuable information about the performance of websites, audience behavior, and network constraints. Key performance indicators should be accessible in real-time or close to real-time.

Top CDN Providers

Now that we know what we have to look for in a provider, let’s look at some of the top Content Delivery Network Providers in the industry:

Filestack

To offer customers a dependable and quick CDN service, Filestack teamed up with Fastly. Through this alliance, Filestack will be able to provide its clients with access to all 24 of Fastly’s POPs. These POPs are strategically placed throughout the world. When you submit a file to Filestack, you automatically create a CDN URL. We call this URL “filelink”, which you can use to quickly and easily deliver the file to the end users.

The integrations with a file uploader and an image transformation engine are the main advantages of Filestack CDN. Uploading, manipulating, and distributing files are made simpler by Filestack, an end-to-end image handling API.

Amazon CloudFront

Cloudfront is a CDN service by Amazon Web Services. To serve top-notch content, it takes advantage of AWS’s global infrastructure and cloud services, which include Amazon S3, Amazon EC2, and Elastic Load Balancing technologies. For those who require extensive modifications and configurable edge computing, Amazon CloudFront features a developer-friendly environment that is perfect.

There are more than 225 points of presence connections to it through the AWS backbone, a private network constructed using 100 GbE metro fiber cables. They also have 3 pricing options which you can choose from.

Azure CDN

Microsoft provides a content distribution network using the Azure cloud architecture. It enables media use cases including internet streaming, gaming, and other media use cases, and is primarily for website development. Due to its powerful route optimization technology, Azure CDN speeds up dynamic content that you can’t cache.

The cost of Azure CDN depends on your zone of operation, the partner-powered services you select, content quantities, and unique content flows made possible by the Microsoft Rules Engine.

Cloudflare

There is no need to modify your code during setup. Simply switch to Cloudflare’s DNS nameservers, and the service will automatically start caching material and delivering it to users from their local area. Cloudflare supports numerous technologies including IPv6, HTTP/2, and SPDY. You can also modify traffic with the assistance of sophisticated page rules and a REST API, which gives developers complete control over the service. There are 4 pricing plans you can choose from here.

Fastly

Fastly provides an edge cloud platform for the optimization of web content and web applications like image optimization. In a serverless environment, you can run a customized CDN by utilizing the entire cloud platform. Fastly is most suitable for online newspapers and digital mixed-media businesses. It offers 4 packages from which you can select one based on your budget and needs.

Google Cloud CDN

Google Cloud CDN is a Google Cloud Platform that is fully connected with Google’s other cloud offerings. If you already utilize Cloud Load Balancing to enhance content resource storage and delivery through Google, it can be activated with a single click. It is most suitable for mid-sized to large businesses built on the Google ecosystem.

The Google Cloud CDN charges extra for cache egress and cache misses in addition to basing its pricing on bandwidth usage and HTTP/HTTPS requests.

StackPath

StackPath is popular as an edge cloud service provider, which supports its CDN web application firewall. It is most appropriate for multi-format digital businesses, especially those in the video, gaming, and IoT sectors.

It is user-friendly and comes with an easy-to-use web console to control your settings. If you run into any problems, you can get in touch with highly effective technical support through a chat session or call.

Conclusion

According to a survey by ResearchAndMarkets, the market value of the CDN industry would be $24.7 billion globally by 2025. This is a result of the significant growth of the market for online entertainment during the pandemic across all geographies and device types. You may scale your business, control expenses, and accelerate an application with CDN services like those described above. I hope this article helps you to choose the best CDN partner you need.

The Filestack file uploading feature and the Fastly CDN could be the best match for you. To try it out, get started with FileStack for free today!

 

Read More →