How do CDNs work?

Every second counts – that’s what can be said about CDN. Behind this acronym lies a network of servers that allows us to receive any content much faster than we could if it were delivered directly from the physical location of the capacity to our region.

Given that it is often thousands of kilometers, we could wait a long time to download a video or online store page. And it is no wonder that we spend seconds not even noticing when we open a page on the Internet. This is the main merit of CDN hosting.

What does CDN look like in practice?

As G-Core Lab told us, CDN is a network of servers where content is stored and transmitted in the most compressed, cached form, so less time is required to transfer data. That is, the rapid download of information on the user’s device is the only sign that you can recognize that the creators of a particular platform use CDN services.

Where is CDN used?

Ensuring the productive work of the site and reducing annoying delays are the goals that almost every resource presented on the Internet tries to achieve. Storing cached site content for optimal data transfer speeds is especially important if the physical distance between the server and the consumer is large enough.

If nothing is done about this problem, sites will experience a drop in conversions of up to 7%, gain dissatisfied customers and reduced traffic. Commercial platforms are the first to try to avoid such problems:

  • Media, gaming and entertainment resources;
  • Everyone who works in the field of e-commerce (online stores, marketplaces, individual entrepreneurs);
  • Government and educational platforms;
  • Websites of medical institutions, etc.

There is only one case where using a CDN is not appropriate: the physical proximity of the servers and your target audience. In this case, you simply add another extra point that the information has to go through.

That is why it is difficult to find resources that do not resort to such tricks to make their services accessible and more convenient for customers.