The world is a big place. So large, in fact, that the physical distance creates a noticeable data transfer delay known as latency, which slows down the user experience. And even though that time may only be seconds, as each data transaction between browser and web-server takes place, those seconds add up to a slower and lazier experience. When this laziness gets added together with other traffic between you and the website you are trying to view, the experience can become an intolerable one. If you own a website, this is a reality you probably live with even though you might not be aware of it. This is especially so if your site is hosted on any one of the many cheap plans offered by services such as GoDaddy and their many competitors. You are likely losing visitors because your website is slow. Especially when lots of visitors are looking for you.
Probably overlooked by most website owners, having a slow website is a potential disaster. Unless you don’t really care if anyone sees your content, you’ll likely be impacted at some point or another and won’t likely be aware of it. Users will abandon your site, leaving unread pages and un-purchased products, all because they got tired of waiting. Improving your website speed is critical. Bigger companies know this all too well. They have taken great measures to assure that visitors see their websites all the time and no matter where they are.
One great example of this is CNN, who invested in a content delivery network for CNN.com early on. On the morning of 9/11, as the horrible events transpired and the world became aware, suddenly millions of people went to the web for up to date information. That morning CNN.com was one of the few websites still online and delivering up to date content, albeit still in a handicapped form. No one could have forseen the vast increase in web traffic and user volume, except of course under such tragic circumstances as those.
So how did CNN do it? They had connected their global website to a content delivery network called Akamai. Akamai’s content delivery network solved this by caching static assets on a global network of edge servers (also called Points of Presence or PoPs), reducing the load on CNN’s origin server. Instead of CNN’s single site in Atlanta, they had local servers in major cities all over the globe delivering their content for them. This enabled CNN to scale from hundreds of users to millions of them without their own web servers becoming overloaded.
At one time, having a content delivery network for meant a big investment. Only companies with big internet budgets could afford the costs. But as with so many technologies, CDNs have no become affordable and available to the masses. In fact, some CDNs offer their basic services for free, at least for now. They see advantages for their paying clients to offer free services as well, as the additional data helps them fine-tune their networks for everyone. Empro has begun putting all our clients onto content delivery networks. The performance and security advantages are clear. We would be doing our clients a disservice NOT to recommend it.
Here are the top five reasons to use a CDN for your website…
- Better performance during traffic spikes thanks to efficient load balancing across multiple servers.
- Better performance regardless of visitor locations.
- Enhanced security, including valuable DDoS protection and filtering of malicious traffic.
- Automatic scaling to meet audience size as needed.
- Features to protect content and add new functionality.
If you need help getting your website to perform the way you want it to, contact Empro today. We can help you get your website working the way it should and delivering the results you really want. We offer a free of charge evaluation to anyone who wants to get the most from the website.
t’s been nearly 20 years since Empro was founded in Concord California, a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since that time, we have gone through many changes and iterations. From a straight up web development and marketing company to a software development company to a high-tech startup creating amazing new technologies. Now we’ve come full circle and returned to the roots we know and love. Empro has always meant “Electronic Media Professionals” and that is who we are.
With our new logo and the launch of our website, Empro is entering a new and exciting phase. We are part of a new generation of web marketers and developers who specialize in bringing technology to bear for our clients. Gone are the old days of simply having a good website. Now we provide our customers with an entire web presence from social media to web and mobile too.
