Content Delivery Network (CDN)

What is a Content Delivery Network (CDN)?

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a distributed network of servers that delivers web content faster by serving it from a location near each user.

A CDN achieves this by "caching" static content such as images, videos, and HTML files on servers located closer to users than the origin server. This proximity reduces latency and improves website performance, resulting in a better user experience.

How does a CDN work?

A CDN creates a network of edge servers in various geographical locations. When a user requests content from a website using a CDN, the request is routed to the nearest edge server. If the requested content is cached there, it is delivered directly to the user - far faster than retrieving it from an origin server that may be thousands of miles away.

If the content is not yet cached, the edge server retrieves it from the origin server and caches it for future requests. This entire process is transparent to the user.

What are the benefits of using a CDN?

• Speed: Caching content closer to users reduces latency and speeds up page load times, especially for a global audience.
• Reliability: Distributing content across many servers helps handle high traffic and mitigates the impact of server outages.
• Security: Many CDNs offer built-in protection such as DDoS mitigation and SSL encryption.
• Reduced costs: Caching reduces the load on the origin server, lowering bandwidth usage.

How MIDAS uses a CDN

Here at MIDAS we use CloudFlare's CDN across our network, both to add an extra layer of security and to deliver content as quickly as possible to our website visitors and to users of our cloud-hosted software.