The symbiotic relationship between content delivery networks and cloud

With the growth of cloud computing, companies have embraced new, cost-effective approaches to IT Infrastructure. The challenge of scaling is no longer prohibitively expensive, and the ability to scale virtually on demand allows small and medium-sized businesses to compete with large enterprises for market share. While the cloud provides substantial improvements regarding performance and cost, can it also meet the content delivery demands of consumers and meet their expectations for a high-quality online experience?

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a distributed network of servers and file storage devices deployed to place content and applications in geographic proximity to users, which reduces the load on origin site infrastructure and bandwidth. Requests for content are redirected via GEO-DNS to the closest content repository. CDNs are highly flexible and address a wide range of needs – making it possible to simulate a broadcast video network over the Internet, cache large files for faster delivery or optimise entire websites using dynamic site acceleration. A CDN is a critical element of modern infrastructure deployment to create a satisfying online user experience.

Emergence of the cloud
Before the cloud became the innovation catalyst we know today, the process for growing one’s IT Infrastructure was complex and costly. In order to scale, businesses had to invest in additional equipment to meet their needs, such as web servers, database servers, load balancers or redundant firewalls. In some cases, this required a large number of devices and potentially hundreds of web servers to achieve the desired infrastructure and bandwidth. This approach proved cost-prohibitive for many companies, notably small- and medium-sized businesses. As a result, a single location was normally designed
to support as many end users as possible to avoid additional expenses.

In the days before cloud, the main way to address issues regarding performance, availability and scale was by buying more computers, buying bigger pipes and deploying multiple instances of your infrastructure – thus effectively creating a private CDN. Existing infrastructure was optimised and then physically replicated in other geographic locations. Aside from the large capital investments required by this approach, there were other drawbacks and challenges – while companies controlled their infrastructure, they had no control over the network between their servers and the end user, and also had to determine how to replicate their data globally.

The cloud offers businesses a less costly way to expand infrastructure – the ability to scale virtually, on demand, without having to build or buy costly hardware. Businesses can now replicate their infrastructure in the desired geographic locations by purchasing a virtual machine with the required specifications – essentially, buying a ‘slice’ of someone else’s pre-built infrastructure. This proves a more cost-effective way to scale and reduce latency for geographically-dispersed areas.

Cloud adoption challenges
In spite of the many advantages to using utility compute platforms, there are some hurdles. To transition successfully to the cloud, organisations must include cloud adoption as part of their strategic planning and determine which type of cloud is best for their needs (public, private, hybrid or bare metal cloud). Placing business data on someone else’s servers is reason enough for some companies to hold off, especially in industries with strict compliance requirements and regulations governing the storage and location of information.

Business and technology decision makers must work together to create a cloud adoption plan that will meet the operational and strategic business goals of the organisation. IT staff may also need to increase their knowledge of cloud technologies in order to adequately manage and support business-critical applications hosted in the cloud.

Aside from educating your staff, there are additional hurdles to cloud adoption that CDN’s help overcome:
Security: A CDN can help ward off raw volume DDoS attacks that can leave your web servers inaccessible to users. CDNs essentially absorb the load and prevent the servers from becoming overwhelmed by abnormally high traffic volume. Without a CDN to act as a buffer against these attacks, cloud servers would be exponentially more vulnerable. This is particularly important for eCommerce websites with servers that store personal data and account information.
Availability of service: A website that is cached on a CDN can appear to be up and active even when the servers that host the site are down or unavailable. This is because the pages can be cached on the edges with an appropriately set “Time to Live” (TTL) that would allow the pages to continue to be served from the edge until the site becomes available again.

Performance Assurance: It is well documented that abandoned shopping carts and low page turns on a site are the direct result of poor performance. This is true whether you host your site in the cloud or use colocation. Poor performance on an ecommerce site directly results in lost revenue, and poor performance on a marketing website results in fewer people getting your message. CDNs are a Cloud Accelerant, and without them, the cloud would not be able to meet the performance expectations of today’s online users.

Scalable Storage: CDN file storage devices offer flexibility options that scale as needed. In contrast, cloud storage is available in fixed amounts that can only be scaled up or down by contacting your cloud storage provider. CDN storage devices can scale up based on the size of the content packet to be distributed, resulting in increased operational agility for your business.

Scaling: A CDN increases the capacity of your infrastructure, which means servers won’t get overwhelmed when your video goes viral or when your eCommerce website experiences unexpected traffic spikes. The ability to offload rich media to the CDN allows the compute platform to run more efficiently, and by shouldering the load, the CDN reduces the risk of web servers becoming overwhelmed. As a multi-tenant application, CDNs provide more capacity than most individual businesses can afford to build. While the cloud provides an interactive computing platform, the ability to scale offers end users the ability to efficiently consume and share content.

A CDN alleviates many obstacles to cloud adoption. While each has a unique purpose, using a CDN and cloud together helps create the right IT Infrastructure for an optimal online user experience.

Cloud: A CDN Accelerant?
Even though the cloud revolutionised IT Infrastructure from a cost perspective, cloud adoption has created an increased need for CDNs. The massive amounts of computing power now available via the cloud requires efficient content distribution to meet user expectations. While the cloud allows companies to extend the reach of origin sites into new geographic areas, the result is greater demand for improved performance.

As the cost of entry into online infrastructure has decreased, new businesses have emerged and web servers are subsequently tasked with responding to a growing number of requests for content. A prime example of this is the rise of B2C eCommerce, which is fundamental for consumer-driven businesses. For emerging businesses, traditional brick-and-mortar stores are now secondary to web presence – if needed at all. Without CDNs, the Internet would not be able to meet the performance and cost challenges of the online B2C market.

Summary
With the symbiotic relationship between the cloud and CDNs, what will the future look like for these utility platforms? As they continue to evolve, will CDNs remain independent or will we witness an increase in partnerships between CDN and cloud providers? Whether cloud and CDNs will continue to exist as we know them today remains to be seen; however, the line between the cloud and CDNs is becoming very blurry. If they become a single platform for the deployment of global applications, the resulting combination of massive computing and delivery capabilities could fundamentally change the face of the Internet.

Regardless of the technology platform and changes that may occur, businesses today need to create a high-quality online user experience to maintain a competitive advantage. In today’s global economy, high-performance content delivery is a must for any website or online application serving geographically-dispersed end users. Using CDNs and cloud together as part of a successful IT Infrastructure strategy can provide a best-of-both-worlds combination for the optimal online user experience.