You can access website and download file or content. The process may take longer time because you are in different continent with website server. To overcome this situation, the website creates network consists of nodes and servers in different countries. When users want to download file or stream multimedia content, the nearest server will response and send what they want. Distributed network for content delivery becomes more efficient using this technology. That’s what you call as Content Delivery Network.
Exploring more about CDN
CDN is not new technology in internet era. Since its inception, downloading and uploading file becomes usual activity. As users, you send request and command to server to get the content. As response, web hosting gives content such as webpage containing document, files, picture, and photo, even audio. It uses http and ftp server to handle such delivery network. Speed and bandwidth depend on the server capability and ISP. If you have fast internet access, there is no problem for having huge file.
Another method is peer-to-peer. Instead of download from server, you get the file directly from computer that other users have. For example, you want certain document and your friend uses peer-to-peer network to send the file directly to your computer. It is also part of early model for CDN. One issue in this technology is security and capacity. Your computer is at high risk because it exposed directly to internet without firewall. It might be virus, Trojan, spam, or other malicious software that attack your network. Furthermore, peer-to-peer also relies on network bandwidth where the speed is limited.
The internet users grow significantly, and the speed becomes important. You need high quality content and top network to deliver data. Moreover, many entertainment companies move to internet and digital technology to serve their customers. For example, a music company uses digital download to sell albums and single. Besides, music streaming becomes common service for smartphone users. They do not need to download, but can still access the favorite song easily. All of them are benefits of CDN that can send files to stream quickly.
How does CDN work? From brief introduction above, you have the basic idea about CDN. In general, there are three parties that involve in this technology. They are content provider, CDN operator, and users or clients. When accessing internet from the device, you are the user. The content provider is company, person, people, organization, or institution that produces digital content. CDN operator is the key player in this network. They handle all hardware, maintenance and network, but not internet access.
CDN prepares network to distribute contents. Each server has similar contents located in various countries. When particular country has huge internet users, CDN operators put more servers to handle traffic. With this network, users will get the same content quickly because it connects to nearby server.
CDN is useful to control restriction. Each country has varied regulation related to content theme. With CDN, users from non-restriction countries do not have to worry about such thing because the content is not from abroad. One big advantage is capacity as CDN is suitable for delivering vast content from big companies in entertainment industry.