Making the internet faster, one byte at a time

 25% of the internet users say they'll wait no more than 4 seconds for a page to load, and 3% will stay patient for 1 second only.

51% of the internet users say that they've encountered a website that
crashed, froze, or received an error. Half of those won't return to a website
where they have experienced a downtime or an error. Many of those will share
their bad experience online. The internet community will soon agree to either use
your website or not.

So... is Multi-CDN right for your business?

It used to be that only the largest and most lucrative companies had the means to use more than one content delivery network. Thankfully new cloud-based routing techniques are making this strategy a reality for smaller organizations.


There are two distinct ways you can run a multi-CDN architecture: automation through a single management provider or DNS load balancing.

Automated multi-CDN Load Balancing

The first is typically accomplished through a larger service provider that automatically routes traffic loads across multiple CDNs. Traffic is commonly served equally to each CDN. Automation can save you a lot of time and toil since the provider is responsible for controlling the CDNs and maintaining updates. You'll also benefit from lower pricing since the service provider is purchasing its bandwidth in bulk from each CDN vendor.

As more companies emerge offering this service it has become increasingly popular for its productivity and expense benefits.

There are a couple problems with this method. Since everything is managed through a single control panel, not directly through the CDNs, routing decisions are restricted. Also, settings and functionality are limited to what is shared among both providers.

DNS Load Balancing

DNS load balancing answers all of these issues since you can pick your providers, avoid vendor lock-in and broaden your services. That's why load balancing is the favored method among developers.

The secret lies in the DNS. The DNS, or Domain Name System, charts domains to their computer-readable IP addresses. In a multi-CDN situation, the domain points to the hostnames of the CDN providers. The CDN providers then point to the IP address of the web servers that are nearest to the end user.

When you direct traffic at the DNS level, there are no further lookups required. That means nimbler analysis and even faster page load times.

Customizing all this in-house can be quite the undertaking. So is there an even better way? A company that automates the DNS?