During the last month, CDN77.com, has upgraded its servers significantly. Let’s have a quick look at the results.

Technology

The nature of delivering web content requires the servers to be both fast in responding to requests and to be able to cover huge bandwidth peaks. That is the reason why all the CDN77 infrastructure relies on fast SSD disks only and links to backbone network via two 10 Gbps ports for each of almost 30 nodes.

Setting up

The process of setting things up was surprisingly easy. Enter your domain name + the subdomain name that will be used to serve the cached content and you are ready to go. Since CDN77.com uses so called pull cache, you don’t have to upload anything. Servers will reach to your domain themselves.

During the process we learned that there is something called “origin” this is your server that hosts the website data for let’s say http://example.com. Then you create a subdomain, let’s say cdn.example.com and point its DNS entries to the CDN77 IP address. This means whoever will ask for let’s say cdn.example.com/image.jpg will be pointed to CDN77 “edge server” (the one closest to the visitor) and the edge server will automatically reach to http://example.com for the image file image.jpg. The visitor does not see that the image was loaded from a different location, but should see a difference in loading time.

Does it work?

We tested the service with few experimental microsites HTML page with text, images, CSS and JavaScript files, just like any other webpage, and measured the loading times via developer extensions in browsers.

Without the CDN set up, we have waited 380 ms for the page to load in average, mostly because the images took long to download and for few CSS files, the server took time to even start sending the data. The response time was quite stable and varied from 270 to 420 ms. Server was not under load.

With the CDN set up, for the first request, we got 400 ms response time and were surprised. Only after then we realized it is the pull cache system for the first request, the data were not cached yet and the CDN server needed to ask our origin server for all the files. Then, right for the second try, the page was loaded in 70 ms! Once cached, the times varied from 55 to 180 ms and averaged around 130 ms.

A great surprise came when testing from a remote location. We asked a friend in Asia to load the test page and without a CDN, his loading times average exceeded 1200 ms! That’s because his request needed to cross many many nodes on its way to our datacenter in North America. With CDN77, our friend measured similar times as we did with CDN set up. That was because CDN77’s nodes are spread all around the world and our friend’s request did not have to travel to North America, it was served from an Asian CDN edge server.

Summary

We have seen stable 60% drop in loading times for the whole web page. The difference got more significant when more files were linked, bigger images added or visitors from other parts of the world were asked to load the page. It is also safe to assume that heavy load on the server would show even bigger gap between the power of our server and the power of a CDN network.

Using some sort of content delivery mechanism seems to be essential today for almost any website, big or small.

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Content Delivery Networks and Pricing

Price options vary between different CDNs and it is important that you fully understand what you are paying for. A big price tag does not equal the best performance or the greatest reach. Take the time to evaluate and understand what the CDN has to offer for the price you are presented with.

Also be aware of additional or hidden costs that you may not anticipate. Not all CDNs will not have an all inclusive price plan and may require additional cost for the following:

Better Performance – Some CDN’s may place you on the “standard” network and require a premium for the higher performing network.

Features – Some features (as mentioned above) may or may not be included in your price plan. Always review what you are getting for the price you are paying.

Midgress Traffic – charges for traffic exchanged between PoPs.

Burst Traffic – Some CDNs may charge a higher rate for any traffic that exceeds the contractual limit.

Support – quality and around the clock support may not always be included in your price plan.

Carefully review the pricing structure and know exactly what you may be paying for. Evaluate each and every performance metric, feature and service item to determine if the price point provides you with the best value. The key is not to get the lowest price, but the best price.

Content Delivery Networks and Support

All CDNs provide support, but the quality, availability and cost will vary. Some important things to consider about support include:

• Is support available 24/7/365?
• Are there different support levels associated with additional costs?
• How responsive is the support staff?
• How fast do problems get resolved?
• Dedicated account manager that knows you and your business needs?
• Is the support staff local or outsourced?
• Technical knowledge level of the support staff?

There are many factors to consider when selecting a CDN that best fits your web performance and business needs. Understand what your needs are and focus on providers that satisfy them. Always take the time to evaluate the solutions, features and benefits that makes sense for your business. The point is not to select the best CDN, but to select the CDN that best meets your needs.

Will Vuong is a web enthusiast and is naturally curious about all things technology and design. He is also a digital marketer specializing web communications and search and is currently leading these efforts at CDNetworks. Connect with Will at Google+ or tweet him at @willv

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Selecting the Right CDN – What You Need to Consider

Companies across all industries turn to CDNs (content delivery networks) to accelerate the delivery of websites and/or web applications across the internet that are critical to their business. Through an interconnected system of PoPs (Points of Presence), CDNs provide a more streamlined and faster delivery method than the standard internet, drastically reducing load time and improving the end user experience.

There are many CDN providers, each offering different solutions, features and performance levels. How do you know which one is best for accelerating your web performance? Here is a list of considerations that will help you select the right CDN.

Network Size and Reach

A CDN’s network size and reach is determined by the number and location of PoPs. A large number of PoPs located in many different regions may be ideal for reaching a globally disbursed audience, but it may not be the right CDN for you if it does not have a presence in your targeted region(s). For instance, if you are trying to reach China with your origin from the UK, you would probably want a CDN with PoPs located inside the Great Firewall and not in nearby locations outside (e.g. Hong Kong or Taiwan).

When evaluating a CDN’s network, find out if it has PoPs in your targeted regions. The closer a PoP is to your end users, the lower the latency (time required to deliver web content to the client). If no CDNs have PoPs located in your targeted regions, go with the one that has the closest PoPs.

Once you have selected the CDN with the reach you require, evaluate the size of the network and the number of PoPs it has in each region. Larger networks with more PoPs are more reliable as it can easily scale and maintain consistent performance during traffic surges and heavy loads.

Caching vs. Dynamic

Understand the difference between caching and dynamic acceleration. Caching is the process of duplicating static web content on PoPs located near end users. Upon request, the duplicated content is served directly from the nearest CDN PoP and not from the origin website, reducing the distance of delivery. A standard blog is an example of a static site, all visitors are served the exact same content and nothing is generated on-demand based on user interaction.

Unlike static content, dynamic content is real-time data and personalized content generated on-demand and served from the origin server. Dynamic content is typically served from interactive websites such as online gaming, applications, online trading etc… Dynamic acceleration provides a more direct and faster delivery path (middle mile) between the origin server and end users. Unlike delivery through the standard internet, data packets are required to travel through less connecting points and larger volumes can be delivered simultaneously.

Most CDNs provide caching services, but very few provide dynamic acceleration. Understand the type of content you are delivering. If it is purely a static site, caching alone may be sufficient. If you intend on accelerating an interactive website or interactive components on your site, a combination of caching and dynamic acceleration may be required.

Short Video – Difference between caching and dynamic acceleration.

Performance

The three primary components of performance are speed, scalability and reliability. Speed refers to how fast the network can return the requested content to the end user. Scalability is the CDN’s ability to maintain consistent performance throughout the network even during surges of traffic. Reliability is how well a CDN can maintain up time and prevent outages.

It is important to consider all three components when evaluating a CDN’s performance. A quick delivery rate is important, but an unreliable network with limited scalability will potentially present you with a lot of heartache.

The level of performance for each component varies between different CDNs and the key is to find the right balance for your needs. Always request a performance assessment/test to properly evaluate a CDN’s performance. Request scenarios specific to your business to be simulated to ensure the CDN is in fact capable of eliminating all current and potential web performance heartaches. It also wouldn’t hurt to do a Google search on the history of network outages on the CDNs you are evaluating.
Integrated Features

Each CDN offers a different set of integrated features that may or may not be essential to your needs. Integrated features may include (not limited to):

• Cloud Storage
• DNS Services
• Cloud Security
• PCI Compliance
• Performance Management Tools
• Load Balancing Tools

Content acceleration services alone may not always be sufficient for your needs and other integrated features and tools may be required. You may also not need all the features offered by the CDN, depending on traffic requirements and the type of content you are accelerating. Some features may be included and others may cost extra.

The point is to be aware of what features are offered by the CDN and which ones are included or cost extra. Review your current site structure and web performance challenges before deciding which features are essential. You may end up paying for features that you may not need or you could end up saving by not having to integrate third party tools that are included in your CDN service.

This is the end of the first part of the post about understanding Content Delivery Networks. Second part of the post will be published later this month. Subscribe for updates!

Will Vuong is a web enthusiast and is naturally curious about all things technology and design. He is also a digital marketer specializing web communications and search and is currently leading these efforts at CDNetworks. Connect with Will at Google+ or tweet him at @willv

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