CDNs provide a way to both bring content closer to your end users and distribute the load across multiple servers. They are essential for serving your global user base. However, not all CDNs made are equal. Some CDNs work better in different parts of the world. Using a best-of-breed approach for each location allows you to takes advantage of the fastest, most reliable CDN for each part of your network. This is why a multi-CDN strategy is becoming more widely adopted. A multi-CDN strategy gives content owners significant benefits including: ensuring their bandwidth commitments are met, an ability to better control the quality of the customer experience, preventing overage charges, and permitting a selection process for delivery using additional requirements. If the quality of your content delivery is tied to your company’s bottom line, using multiple CDNs mitigates the risk that CDN issues will impact your content delivery and, ultimately, your sales.
The variability in CDN performance is why it is important to implement a multi-CDN strategy in your network architecture. A single CDN may not address all of your customers’ needs. Like internet speed and quality, individual CDNs vary in their performance across different global locations. Delivery can be also impacted for some customers due to local outages or unexpected high internet traffic volume in the local area.
The performance quality improvements your users will see depends on which CDN you’re using in any given market. A multi-CDN approach allows you to choose a best-of-breed CDN for each market based on the measured CDN performance in that area. As an example of the variability of CDN performance in a single market, the following chart shows the CDN performance, measured in response time, for several CDN providers over a 30 day period.
NS1’s solutions provide a DNS layer solution for multi-CDN strategy to incorporate a best-of-breed architecture that lowers latency across your global customer base. To find out more about our solutions:
Learn more about how NS1’s solutions can benefit your CDN architecture in this on-demand webinar and demonstration.