A Content Delivery Networks (or CDN) is a service operating across a widely distributed system of servers to bring web content to an end-user based on the end-user's geographic location.
A server optimally situated to deliver the best performance and fastest load times is determined algorithmically, with the goal of noticeably improving the end-user's experience (e.g. reduced page load time). This technology is becoming more essential as websites offer more streaming video, e-commerce and other applications where performance really matters.
Dynamic site acceleration
CDN caching rules
Diagnostic logs
File compression
Geo-filtering
HTTP/2 support
DDOS protection
CDN providers cache content in their own network or in third-party networks. When a user clicks on a website, the CDN redirects the request to the to the server geographically closest to the user without the user being aware. The CDN calculates which server is nearest to the requestor and delivers content based on those calculations. The CDN eliminates the number of hops that a data packet must make which leads to optimized bandwidth and increased performance. It can also be useful in the event of an outage as content housed on a CDN remains accessible to at least a portion of the user base.
More recently, CDNs have been using machine learning technology to enable faster load and delivery times.
CDN pricing is typically a price per GB, with a sliding scale of decreasing cost as the overall volume increases. Price also varies depending on the geographic zone. As an example, for the first tier of 10 TB in North America and Europe, the per GB price may vary between $0.04 to $0.25 or more, depending on product capabilities.
Cloudflare, from the company of the same name in San Francisco, provides DDoS and bot mitigation security for business domains, as well as a content delivery network (CDN) and web application firewall (WAF).
Akamai Technologies, headquartered in Boston, offers a Akamai: a content delivery network (CDN).
CloudFront is the content delivery network (CDN) from Amazon Web Services.
IBM Cloud Internet Services is a set of edge network services for securing internet-facing applications from DDoS attacks, data theft, and bot attacks, as well as optimizing their web apps or ensuring global responsiveness and the ongoing availability of their internet-facing applications.
Pantheon is the website management platform marketers and developers rely on to build, host, and manage their most important sites. Pantheon includes all of the tools professionals need to build best-in-class sites—like staging environments, version control, backups, and automated workflows.…
Microsoft offers a content delivery network, Azure CDN.
The Google Cloud CDN is touted as a low cost option with tight integration with Google Cloud apps and services.
StreamShark is a live streaming solution that provides options for large enterprises as well as individuals or businesses with small to medium requirements.
Fastly, headquartered in San Francisco, offers the Fastly Edge Cloud Platform Content Delivery Network (CDN). Priced by bandwidth in gigabytes and number of file requests, Fastly supports image optimization, video and streaming, load balancing, and cloud security via web application firewall (WAF) a…
OnApp, headquartered in London, provides a content delivery network (CDN).
Imperva CDN provides intelligent and caching controls, content and network optimization, application delivery rules, and high website availability, and is available as part of the Imperva FlexProtect. The Imperva CDN is based on resources acquired with Incapsula.
Limelight Content Delivery is the content delivery network from Limelight Networks headquartered in Scottsdale.
ChinaCache is a content delivery network (CDN) from the Chinese company of the same name.
The StackPath (formerly Highwinds) Content Delivery Network provides a scalable DNS with load balancing, traffic management, DDoS protection and Web Application Firewall (WAF) to support and protect enterprise websites and applications.
KeyCDN is the content delivery network from the Swiss company of the same name.
Web security company SiteLock in Scottsdale, Arizona offers TrueSpeed CDN, a content delivery network.
Instart Logic's Security Suite provides web application security and protection against DDoS attacks.
Aryaka in San Mateo offers SmartCDN, a CDN service which they state provides superior performance for dynamic IP applications for users worldwide. It leverages Aryaka’s global private Layer 2 network to bypass the congested public internet across the middle-mile, delivering enterprise-grade applicat…
Internap CDN is the content delivery network from Atlanta-headquartered Internap.
LeaseWeb CDN is the content delivery network from Dutch web hosting company, LeaseWeb.
Nokia offers the Velocix Content Delivery Network (CDN), called Velocix Media Delivery Platform, since their 2016 acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent and its services, which itself acquired Velocix in 2009.
MetaCDN is a content delivery network from the Australian company of the same name.
EdgeCast is a content delivery network (CDN), acquired by Verizon in 2013.
CacheFly offers a content delivery network.
CDN77 is a Content Delivery Network with 35+ PoPs worldwide. According to the vendor, CDN77 aims to be an innovation leader and was the first CDN to implement HTTP/2, Brotli compression algorithm or QUIC.The vendor offers 14Tbps+ network capacity which can handle website acceleration, software distr…