Advantages of Content Distribution Network

A content delivery network (CDN) is used to reduce the page load time. This is a free and easy-in-use service.

The idea is to provide static page files to the visitors as fast as possible and at the same time do not overload the server. This will also increase the execution speed of scripts.

CDN system consists of a group of caching servers. After activating the service it is only necessary to change the path of the static files in a special subdomain, and all requests for static files are to be redirected to the server's content delivery system. This server stores the information in a RAID array, which consists of solid state disks (SSDs). If the desired file is not found in the cache, the CDN server transmits the query to the master server to receive the file and store it in the cache afterwards.

Most modern browsers can not make more than 10 connections to the server, so other static content retrieval processes must wait for the current processes to finish. And CDN systems allows to access those files without a need to wait.

The following file extensions are supported: .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png, .ico, .css, .midi, .wav, .bmp, .js, .swf, .flv, .avi, .djvu, .mp3, .xml, .zip.

Thanks to the data recovery speed, the performance of the pages located on the original server is not different than those located on the CDN servers.

Some of the advantages of using the content delivery system are:

  1. Reduction of the page load time
    Tasks are divided so that the HTTP server is only responsible for the operation of PHP scripts and server delivers CDN static data. As a result, page load time can be 3-4 times reduced.
  2. Top positions in search results
    Search engines like Google take into account the time the server takes to respond and display the results. After activating the free CDN service you will have an advantage in this regard.