What is a CDN? An Overview

The Liquid Web CDN improves your website’s load time by taking all of your site’s media (pictures, music, etc.) and distributing it to a worldwide caching network. When a visitor reaches your CDN-enabled websites they will receive the basic elements (text, framework code, etc.) from your server as normal, but all the media will be handled by the CDN’s worldwide network of caching servers (also referred to as “nodes”).

Because media files are almost always much larger than text elements, the CDN takes a lot of the workload from your dedicated server. Please note that the Liquid Web CDN is only for use with media files and does not handle databases or other server-side functions. Database activity and other functions will continue to be handled by your server.

It is also important to note that adding CDN services to your server requires modifications to your website’s code. If you are using a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc. then these changes can be easily made using the CMS software itself. If your website was custom-built and does not have a CDN option in the CMS interface, you will need to consult your site’s developer for assistance in implementing CDN code changes.

CDN Types

Bandwidth Only

This type of CDN service does not require any upload to the CDN ahead of time. When using Bandwidth Only the CDN node network will check to see if it contains the media elements required by your page/site, and if it does not it will pull the files from your server and cache them in the CDN.

Bandwidth Only is best suited for websites that are updated multiple times per day with no scheduled interval. Blogs with several contributing writers who publish stories throughout the day are just one example of a type of website that would benefit from Bandwidth Only CDN.

Bandwidth Only pricing is dictated by the amount of monthly bandwidth your media will need, and can be upgraded at any time.

Storage

As implied by the name, Storage CDN service requires a proactive upload of your media to the CDN before it can be utilized on your websites. This is accomplished using an “ingress point” server on the CDN. Once your data has been uploaded to the ingress point it is then distributed to the rest of the CDN automatically.

Data uploads to the CDN when using Storage can be handled using any popular file transfer method such as FTP or rsync. When activating Storage CDN there is typically one large initial upload followed by scheduled, periodic syncs that will upload any new data to the CDN.

Storage is best suited for websites that update their content on a specific schedule, a couple of times per day or less. Frequent daily updates to a site, even if scheduled, are almost always better off using Bandwidth Only instead of Storage.

Storage pricing is based on two items: the amount of storage space your media will need, and the monthly bandwidth your media will use. As with the other CDN types this pricing can be updated at any time once you are using the CDN.

Tell Me More

For more information regarding the Liquid Web CDN, or if you would like to order the CDN for your existing Liquid Web account, please see our CDN product page.