Introduction to a CDN

Proposed solution

The solution to all the problems discussed in the previous lesson is the content delivery network (CDN). A CDN is a group of geographically distributed proxy servers. A proxy server is an intermediate server between a client and the origin server. The proxy servers are placed on the network edgeThe network edge is the zone where a device or local network interfaces with the Internet.. As the network edge is close to the end users, the placement of proxy servers helps quickly deliver the content to the end users by reducing latency and saving bandwidth. A CDN has added intelligence on top of being a simple proxy server.

We can bring data close to the user by placing a small data center near the user and storing copies of the data there. CDN mainly stores two types of data: staticThis type of data doesn’t change frequently and remains on the servers for a ...