CDN
What is it?
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a type of service that accelerates internet content delivery. It consists of a network of servers located around the world that cache (temporarily store) the content of a website such as HTML pages, javascript files, stylesheets, images and videos, putting them in locations closer to the people who are accessing this content. There are many public CDN services available from companies such as Cloudflare, Akamai, Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure, while major websites and streaming service providers such as Facebook, Netflix or YouTube (Google) have built their own CDNs. The popularity of CDN services continues to grow, and today the majority of web traffic is served through CDNs.
Why do you need it?
A CDN makes the internet faster, decreasing website loading times and taking the burden off the primary website host, by distributing commonly requested content across the Internet in locations geographically closer to the user who is viewing the website. This content is cached on servers often located at the network edge, reducing the latency required to request the content and download it. A CDN also helps reduce bandwidth costs, increases content availability and redundancy, and can even improve website security.
How is GIGABYTE helpful?
A CDN relies on a geographically dispersed network of servers that are able to store and quickly deliver content. Since these servers should be located close to the user who is consuming the content, they are often required to be placed at the network edge, in locations that have space or power limitations but still require powerful compute and storage capabilities. GIGABYTE offers a range of server systems that are optimized for the requirements of a CDN, including short-depth multi-node Edge Servers ideal for restricted space deployments, and compact Rack Servers that can support a large array of NVMe SSD storage as well as a flexible number of expansion slots for high speed networking connectivity. Furthermore, every GIGABYTE server includes powerful software tools such as GIGABYTE Management Console to allow the CDN administrator to effectively manage their network of servers from a remote location.
