CDN Strategies for Global Performance
CDN Strategies for Global Performance Global users expect fast, reliable access to your site. A thoughtful CDN strategy keeps content near users, reduces delay, and improves the experience across devices and networks. The right plan balances speed, coverage, and cost, and it is easier to manage when you start with clear goals. Understand your audience Find out which regions have the most visitors and what assets they use most. Map where latency is higher and plan edge locations accordingly. Recognize that both static files and dynamic content matter for performance. Choose the right CDN features Edge caching lets copies live close to users. Geolocation routing sends users to the best region for speed and reliability. Origin shield protects your origin from bursts and reduces load. Support for HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 improves parallel transfers. TLS termination at the edge can speed up secure connections. Use compression like Brotli or gzip to shrink files and save bandwidth. Caching strategies Cache static assets for long periods with clear cache-control rules. For dynamic content, use shorter TTLs and revalidation strategies such as stale-while-revalidate. Purge caches promptly after updates to avoid stale content. Version assets to prevent old files from lingering in caches. Image and media delivery Serve images in modern formats (WEBP or AVIF) and adapt to device capabilities. Use CDN image optimizers for resizing and compression on the edge. For video, enable adaptive streaming and chunked delivery to handle varying networks. Testing and monitoring Run tests from multiple regions to measure time to first byte and overall throughputs. Monitor Real User Metrics (RUM) to see real experiences. Set alerts for latency spikes, error rates, and cache misses, and review regularly. In short, a practical CDN plan makes content fast where your users are. Start with key regions, enable core features, and keep an eye on metrics to keep performance steady as you grow. ...