3 performance benefits every CDN should have

The performance you expect from your CDN has changed radically over the last 10 years. You only have a few seconds to capture a user’s attention, and laggy latency is just unacceptable. Your metrics will reflect that with high bounce rates and low conversions. The success of an online business is dependent on a modern, efficient CDN that can serve content fast.

There are three massive benefits to serving as much content as quickly as possible from your CDN’s cache instead of from your servers:

1. Shifting more of your content to a CDN can help you save significant amounts of money on egress charges and hardware costs

2. You can scale your traffic capacity instantly and on-demand without the need to build or maintain a massive infrastructure for peak traffic events

3. A faster website means happier customers – grow your revenue by reducing bounce rates and improving conversions

Why these benefits matter

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) often have limitations when it comes to caching and serving content quickly. This can be attributed to the network's architecture and components; building a global network requires a significant investment – and many CDNs may cut corners, use legacy equipment, or lack the foresight to invest in high-capacity, cutting-edge components. 

However, CDNs that invest in more storage for content on each POP and more powerful computing, enable the POPs to perform fundamental tasks like optimized load balancing and cache dynamic and event-driven content. This means that content can be read out of memory much faster, enabling CDNs to reduce calls to your origin, keep content cached longer, and shrink payloads without introducing latency.

By outsourcing your ability to handle peak traffic events to your CDN, you can reduce your operating costs and capital expenditures. This means that you don't have to build out your infrastructure at origin to handle extreme traffic peaks and watch most of your capacity sit idle and burn through your budget most of the time while operating normally. Instead, CDNs can provide the necessary infrastructure and resources to handle peak traffic events, enabling you to focus on your core business objectives.

Investing in high-capacity components for your CDN improves performance, reduces operating costs, and enables your business to focus on growth and success.

Use this guide to help you evaluate your options

Having a need for speed is just one area to evaluate to make sure you select the right CDN. If you’re looking for further help assessing your CDN options, download the Definitive CDN Buyer’s Guide. It contains helpful insights on performance and much more. Get help evaluating across topics like infrastructure, origin shielding, real-time features, configurability, reliability, logging, and pricing. 

To provide fast, secure, and reliable websites and applications you need to select a CDN that has modern architecture and network components. It can be difficult to navigate the market as you look to improve your CDN performance. Picking the wrong CDN (or sticking with one) can face challenges like slow websites, apps, and streaming, lack of self-service, and elevated costs.