A Content Delivery Network (CDN) improves how your website or application delivers content to users across the globe. Instead of serving all traffic from a single origin server, a CDN caches static and dynamic content at distributed edge locations, closer to end users. This architecture provides several benefits:
- Faster Website Performance: A CDN reduces the physical distance between your users and your content by serving it from nearby edge servers. This minimizes round-trip times and improves page load speeds.
- Reduced Latency for Global Users: Requests are routed to the closest CDN PoP (Point of Presence), which notably lowers latency compared to accessing a geographically distant origin server.
- Lower Bandwidth Costs: By caching and offloading traffic from the origin server, a CDN reduces the amount of data transferred directly from your infrastructure. This can lower hosting and bandwidth expenses.
- Increased Website Availability and Uptime: CDN networks distribute load across multiple servers. If one node fails, traffic is rerouted to another healthy PoP, reducing downtime and single points of failure.
- Enhanced Security and DDoS Protection: With built-in features such as TLS termination, Web Application Firewall (WAF) integration, and distributed DDoS mitigation, a CDN helps protect your site from malicious traffic and large-scale attacks.
- Better Scalability During Traffic Spikes: A CDN can handle sudden surges in user traffic by distributing requests across its global infrastructure, preventing your origin server from being overwhelmed.
Refer to the official Vultr CDN Push and Pull Zone documentation to learn how to configure and manage your CDN setup.