Content Delivery Network
A globally distributed network of servers that delivers web content from locations close to users.
Also: CDN
Definition
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and data centers that deliver web content to users from servers closest to their location. By caching static assets (images, JavaScript, CSS, videos) at edge nodes worldwide, CDNs dramatically reduce latency, absorb traffic spikes, improve reliability, and decrease origin server load. Major CDN providers include Cloudflare, Akamai, Fastly, and AWS CloudFront. CDNs also offer DDoS protection and web application firewall capabilities.
Example
“A global e-commerce site uses a CDN so that a customer in Singapore downloads product images from a Singapore edge server rather than the origin server in Virginia, reducing load time from 2 seconds to 200 milliseconds.”
Synonyms
- CDN
- edge network
- distributed delivery network
Antonyms / Opposites
- origin server
- centralized hosting
Images
CC-licensed · free to useVideo
Related Terms
- latency
- bandwidth
- http
- load-balancer