There are a lot of myths floating around about CDN that are resulting in a lot of misunderstandings. In our latest Tech Talk podcast episode, we address these myths and explain the facts.
Myth 1: CDNs are only for large companies
This is of course a myth, CDNs can be for any sized company, it just depends on what type of content you want to send over the internet. CDNs are about making sure your end users can load your website instantly, watch videos without lag, etc., so if they need to wait even two seconds for the content to load, they’re not going to be happy, and business will drop. Ultimately, if you have a global reach of users that want to use your website or access your content, you will benefit from having a CDN.
This myth probably comes from the misconception that CDNs need a lot of people to run them, but if you opt for managed CDNs this takes a lot of burden off of your company.
Myth 2: All CDNs are the same
There are many types of CDN, such as single-CDNs and multi-CDNs. Single-CDN providers rely on one network of Points of Presence (PoPs) globally. Multi-CDN providers use several networks with different PoPs all over the world, which they combine into one CDN solution. In general, CDN providers always have a specific geographic focus. There are also different tiers of networks, the PoP locations can be different, it’s not that all CDN providers offer the same PoP locations and networks.
Myth 3: Single-CDNs are cheaper
It’s not the case that Single-CDNs are always cheap because it depends on the provider and how many PoP locations they have. Some Single-CDN providers can be very expensive, more so than multi-CDN providers, so it really depends.
Myth 4: Single-CDNs are sufficient
Whether a single CDN is sufficient for your business or not really depends on your business and where your end users are located. If you have a global network of end users, then a single-CDN provider is not always sufficient. Even though single CDN providers claim that they have a global reach, as we mentioned earlier, they always have a specific geolocation focus where they have better pricing or more PoPs located. If, for example, your end users are only in the Americas, then it is sufficient to have a single CDN provider that focuses on the Americas. But you need to keep in mind that outages may affect your business, because no matter the strength of the network or the brand reputation of the provider, every single CDN provider faces an outage at some point. If you have an outage, that means your website is not reachable and people cannot buy the products on your website or access content that they’ve paid for. So, this is a very important factor to consider whether you can afford outages or not. If you can, then a single CDN is sufficient, but if not, multi-CDNs have a fail-over solution whereby if one CDN has an outage, it will switch over to the CDN that is still working. Therefore, multi-CDNs ensure that your business can keep running no matter what.
At the end of the day, you need to consider what is important to you and what is the cost benefit. Consider how much the single CDN option will cost you per month compared to the amount and frequency of traffic that you can expect. Where are your end users located? Can you afford an outage?
Myth 5: CDN can protect you against all types of cyber attacks
Using a CDN adds another layer of cybersecurity to your origin, as traffic passes through the CDN and PoPs, not directly to your origin. On top of this, CDN has built-in DDOS protection and distributes large volumes of traffic. However, this will not protect you against everything, so if you need advanced security you will need to add additional protection. But it is true that CDNs are a type of security since they protect your origin from large volumes of traffic, DDOS and malicious attacks.
Learn more about Leaseweb Multi-CDN.