Selecting a CDN–Take assistance from your service provider

Are you planning to buy CDN service? There are so many factors that play an important role. Your demand is superior service for the price you pay. While searching for CDN providers, here are a few factors you must consider.

Bandwidth requirements

First, it’s important to determine how much bandwidth you require is it 100GB/month or 100TB/month. In majority cases, the CDN service providers charge for the GB transferred. If you simply delivery very low traffic, you might not even need a CDN but a dedicated environment would be better. If you are only delivering 500 GB every month on an average, it makes sense to have a CDN. You would be getting too many monthly requests and one web server is not enough to handle the traffic. Definitely, if you deliver 1TB of static content per month, a CDN is a must. This makes sure your podcasts, videos, documents, music and software download is getting more customers.

Network performance

All content delivery networks claim to have the most superior network. There are 3 different CDN types: the internet based, peer to peer and private based. The internet-based cdn is the most popular, it boasts of maximum customers. A private CDN uses regional servers and there are many CDNs that are using this model including Edgecast CDN, Panther, CD networks, Level 3 and more. The peer to peer cdn has no infrastructure costs and you can get your content from any internet service provider. The last method should not be used if you deliver content that generates revenue. There are also Hybrid CDNs that use the private or peer to peer method.

Is your service provider offering Edgecast CDN service?

Unreliable and slow content delivery networks are no more existent. Outdated content delivery networks are absolutely frustrating as they have hefty service models which result in slow loading of web pages and users need to wait long. The fastest Edgecast CDN offers:

• Smart enterprise features
• Superb performance
• High capabilities

Take a look at the capabilities in details

• Super reporting for 100% visibility
• Dynamic content acceleration and static caching with rapid TLS connection.
• Granular control comes with self-service APIs and portal.
• Optimized delivery of mobile devices and video streaming
• High-security features
• Lot of capacity and global scalability
• 24/7 professional support and front-line engineers

When it comes to speed and consistency, Edgecast CDN is the best because tests have shown that edgecast has faster HTTPS, faster DNS, smart delivery, faster page loading time and very high cache hit ratio. This CDN network is built better than any other because advanced technologies are used there is super PoP design is used.

Technology

Is your cdn supporting the technology you need? Content Delivery networks deliver content with help of progressive HTTP download but do it support Windows media streaming, Flash streaming or real media streaming? Can you avail Windows media Live or Flash Live? Are they able to do pseudo Flash streaming or are they offering exclusive services for High Definition delivery? What about quality analytics? There are so many things to take note of. Technology is a real matter of concern, talk to your service provider.

Reputation and longevity

For how long are you using the CDN in your business? It’s advisable not to put content in just any CDN. Prefer a CDN that is funded and have no debts in the market. Check whether they are going through any lawsuits and see for how long they have been dominant in the market. Do an extensive research and choose independently.

Cost factor

Different CDNs have varying costs and this should not be your primary concern. Be ready to pay a little higher than $1 per GB. The price is determined by the traffic you are passing every month. It will get cheaper with the more number of content you pass. If the CDN you prefer is very costly, ask the service providers about resellers you can approach. Do proper research even while going with a reseller so that your support services are not restricted.

Other services and support

While choosing a CDN look for additional services, It should be able to offer you extra services like helping with monetization, offering transcoding/encoding, live event monitoring, cache entire website and much more. Getting the best support is of utmost importance and you must get 24/7 service.

Finally, opt for a CDN that meets your budget and suits your requirements.