Why should I use a Content Delivery Network or CDN?
The Bottom Line - 50% (and more) Increase In Website Load Times
A Content Delivery Network or CDN is designed to cache the static content (eg, images, style sheets, scripts etc -- things that don't often change), on sites through a wide geographic network.
Your website could be hosted on a server say, in the USA, so under normal circumstances (without a CDN), all the data including images, videos etc, will need to be sent from your host server (in the USA in this example).
It takes time to get data from thousands of kilometres away. Wouldn't it be better if this data only had to come from somewhere closer to where your actual website visitor is located? Well it can!
Your Data Is Stored Closer To Where Your Visitors Are Located
A CDN is a network of servers located all over the world. Your static content (images etc), are stored on ALL of these servers
If an Australian (or European or American) visitor to your website requests some content, if you are using a CDN, that content will be delivered from the CDN server closest to the visitor requesting the information, so in this case, the actual content (images, videos etc), will come from a server located in Australia (or Europe or America), which of course speeds up the page load time because the content (which might be large images), does not have to be delivered from a server in the USA to your website visitor located in Australia (or Europe or America).
The actual code for your website (which is very small in volume), still comes directly from your hosting server (located in the USA in this example), but the volume is so small that the time to load it is irrelevant.
The same applies if someone was to access your site from say, London. The static data will be delivered from a server based in England, and not your host server based in the USA.
Brilliant!
There are many very good reasons for using a Content Delivery Network or CDN on your site. The key ones are:
User Experience: If your site loads faster for your site’s visitors, then it is more likely that they will stay on the site and also come back for other visits.
Reduce Server Load: Having your content cached on servers all over the world not only makes your site faster, it also reduces the amount of load on your server for those resources and the amount of bandwidth you have to pay for.
Reduce Latency: If your server is located in the United States, but your visitors are also coming from places like Europe or Asia, it will take longer for the site to load going directly to your server for those visitors. Having the static content cached and delivered from a node closer to them will greatly reduce any latency they experience.
Traffic surges or spikes:
If you suddenly have a great crush of traffic to your site because of a major news or online event, your server may not be able to cope with the additional visitors hitting the site and may go down. Having a CDN in front of the site will greatly reduce the probability that your site will go down.
Security
Add another layer of security from Spammers, SQL Injection attacks, and DDOS attacks from the script kiddies.
By having to go through the CDN first, it is just another layer of protection to keep your site and your visitors safe!
It also offers services like obscuring email addresses and preventing hot linking of your images.
Block by Country of Origin
You can even block entire countries of origin if you wish. (or by IP Address) We can setup the CND to block those countries which you receive the least amount of traffic and present the largest amount of threats.
In my case I have come across spammers from Russia, China, Poland, Ukraine, Egypt, Iran, Syria, and a few others, so these countries can be blocked.
Of course if they still want to visit there are ways around it.
So, Should You Use A CDN?
Well, that depends really. If you don’t get much traffic and if your site loads quickly as it is, then maybe not. But if you want the added security and speed you get with a CDN then I say for sure!
So my going-in position is to say YES.