CDN – What is a Content Delivery Network
A Content Delivery Network is a Network of servers.
You subscribe to their CDN network
Each server in that network holds copies of your website files.
The servers are strategically spaced around the world.
Any time someone visits your Domain(website) the CDN serves files from the closest of those servers.
The Problem CDN addresses
Normally your website lives on one server somewhere in the world.
For someone living in the same city as your server, your site may load quite quickly. (but not a guarantee)
The path to your server in the same city is likely quite direct.
If your site content is well optimized and your server reasonably efficient things should be good.
The further people get from that server, then it’s likely your site will load slower.
The path from other locations around the world may go through multiple servers.
Then through regional hubs .
And finally… they can get to your sites hosting server.
Of course the type of hosting service you use may have an impact during busy times of day.
Add to that any congestion that may be experienced anywhere along that path.
The files from your site will take longer to reach the visitors browser.
Here is where a CDN can help offer a solution.
A CDN stores copies of your website information on multiple servers around the world.
This means we could store a large percentage of that data and files on a server closer to the physical locations of our visitors.
The visitors browser will receive the required information quicker to render your website for viewing.