Accelerating Business with CDN: An Overview of the Technology and Top 3 CDN Providers in Europe
With the development of the internet and the growth of digital content, loading speed and availability of web resources have become critically important factors for internet users worldwide. Slow page loading, especially if it contains videos, images, or other large multimedia files, can drive users away. Today, load time is one of the key ranking factors, and users have become more selective about content. You only have 2 seconds — that's the time people are willing to wait for a site to fully load, according to surveys.
To address this issue, companies have begun actively using CDN (Content Delivery Networks). It may sound complex, but it's simpler than it seems!
How does a CDN work?
It's no secret that all the information on the internet doesn’t just float around in the air; it’s stored on servers worldwide. A CDN is a system of distributed servers that helps accelerate content delivery to the user. Instead of retrieving data from a primary server, which may be far away, the user interacts with the nearest CDN server. This significantly reduces latency and speeds up page loading. In simple terms, the nearest CDN server quickly delivers large data files directly to the user’s device.
Imagine you're watching a video on a streaming service, like YouTube. When you hit play, the data (video, audio) starts loading onto your device. Without a CDN, your request would go directly to YouTube’s main server, possibly located on the other side of the world, causing delays and interruptions. But thanks to CDN, the video is delivered from the nearest server that holds a copy of this content. For example, if you're in the Netherlands, your request will be handled by a server in the Netherlands, not the U.S. This significantly shortens load time, ensuring a smooth, lag-free experience.
Why does a business need CDN?
Over the past decade, with the increase in data volumes and the globalisation of the internet, CDN has become indispensable for large platforms and small websites alike, seeking fast and stable performance regardless of user location. For large businesses, CDN plays a crucial role, especially in e-commerce, media, streaming, and cloud services. Using CDN allows companies to scale effectively and deliver a high-quality user experience on a global scale. Here are some examples of how CDN improves conversion rates for major market players:
- Faster website loading:
- Global availability for media and streaming platforms:
- Protection against overloads and DDoS attacks:
- Infrastructure cost savings:
For large e-commerce platforms like Aliexpress or Alibaba, every second of delay in page loading can lead to the loss of potential customers. The faster the site loads, the higher the chances a user will make a purchase. CDN reduces load times by serving content from servers closest to the user, improving the user experience and increasing conversion.
Companies like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify rely on CDN to deliver content to their users worldwide with minimal delays. Thanks to CDN, users can watch movies, listen to music, or watch videos without lags, no matter where they are located. This helps platforms retain millions of users while maintaining high-quality services, even during peak traffic times.
Large companies also use CDN to increase the security of their services. A CDN can distribute traffic across various servers, reducing the risk of overloads during sudden spikes in traffic. For example, during sales or advertising campaigns on platforms like eBay or Shopify, where traffic surges occur, CDN helps handle the load. Additionally, CDNs protect businesses from DDoS attacks by filtering malicious traffic and preventing overloads on the main servers.
For companies like Microsoft and Google, CDN significantly reduces the costs of maintaining server infrastructure. Instead of building expensive data centres worldwide, companies can use a distributed server network, optimising content delivery and cutting expenses on data storage and processing.
Thus, CDN not only helps large companies improve content delivery speed and security, but it also supports business scaling, enhances user experience, and reduces operational costs. This gives businesses a competitive edge in the global market.
Trend foresight
Speaking of trends, with the increasing popularity of video content on the internet, Video on Demand (VoD) has become an important way for users to watch videos at their convenience. A VoD system stores video content on servers in digital form, from which it is streamed to the viewer’s device. To ensure fast and uninterrupted streaming, VoD also uses CDN. This helps deliver video quickly, even when many people are watching at the same time.
Nowadays, as more content is produced in high resolution, technologies like CDN make watching videos seamless and lag-free, meeting modern user expectations. For example, Serverspace launched a VoD service on their website, where users can easily configure everything within a few minutes through a user-friendly control panel.
"In the future, CDN services will evolve towards even greater speed and adaptability, ensuring seamless delivery of content of any size and quality, including 4K and VR, globally. As video, cloud services, and gaming usage grow, CDNs will integrate new technologies like edge computing and artificial intelligence to optimise delivery routes and enhance user experience", - says German Leontev, managing director at Serverspace.
Top players
Nowadays, when the demand for local providers is on the rise, European CDN vendors have begun playing a key role in ensuring internet stability and accessibility in the region. Today, they already offer solutions that help handle high traffic loads, ensuring fast loading of websites and streaming videos.
This article highlights the top 3 leading European CDN providers, offering reliable and efficient services for businesses and users:
Serverspace – An international cloud infrastructure provider. CDN and other services can be easily connected via a user-friendly control panel with just a few clicks. Points of presence around the world – Europe, USA, Canada, Brazil and more.
OVHCloud – OVHCloud is a global provider of cloud computing solutions, offering services like web hosting, dedicated servers, and cloud infrastructure tailored for businesses of all sizes. Their CDN service enhances website performance by caching content across a worldwide network, reducing latency, and ensuring fast delivery to users.
Leaseweb – Leaseweb provides global cloud services, including dedicated servers, web hosting, and scalable infrastructure. Their CDN speeds up content delivery by distributing it worldwide, improving load times and reducing latency for users.
Today, Content Delivery Networks (CDN) are an integral part of digital infrastructure, ensuring fast and reliable content delivery worldwide. With growing data volumes, especially video, and increasing demands for quality user experience, the role of CDN is only expanding. In the future, we can expect further advancements in CDN technology, including the integration of artificial intelligence, enabling them to handle rising traffic demands and maintain high standards of operation even under rapid internet traffic growth.
