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The ultimate extension for a faster and more secure website

There is a lot to think about when improving your website. A high PageSpeed, being resilient to hackers and cyber attacks and of course scoring high in Google. You should then consider working with a Content Delivery Network. A kind of catch-all tool for a faster and more secure platform.

The tool you didn't know you needed

So a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A real digital panacea for anyone who likes a fast and well-secured website. But what exactly does that mean, such a CDN?

A Content Delivery Network is a globally distributed network of web servers whose goals include faster delivery and maximum available content. The content is replicated throughout the CDN, so it exists in many places at once. A CDN is separate from hosting and is a separate service that you use to improve, among other things, the speed and security of your website.

Why a CDN?

  • Higher PageSpeed ​​for your platform
  • Protection against cybercrime, including DDoS
  • A fast loading website around the world

Improved Pagespeed

To start with, a CDN has the absolute advantage that your website loads more or less equally fast everywhere in the world. A known problem that prevents someone in Indonesia from getting a cup of coffee while loading a Dutch website has been resolved. A Content Delivery Network stores the website on local servers, so to speak, which literally makes the connection a lot shorter. Storing this, and thus having a copy of the website ready, is called caching. Your PageSpeed ​​is therefore extremely high everywhere in the world. Good for your Google ranking, and therefore good for you.

A CDN therefore distributes important content to multiple data centers located worldwide, so that it is closer to the end user and therefore the content can be displayed faster. The network uses server optimizations based on content type to get that content to the user as efficiently as possible.

Automatic WebP conversion

A frequently asked question following PageSpeed ​​analyzes is to optimize images by converting all JPG files to WebP. This modern format was specially developed for the Internet and can save valuable kilobytes per page view. On average, a WebP image is 25% smaller than the PNG or JPG from which it is derived.

Various CDN providers offer this as a (premium) feature. Extremely useful and valuable! It works regardless of the technology used to build the website and the conversion does not use valuable computing power or storage space on the hosting server.

Digital lock on the door

Not only can a CDN improve the PageSpeed ​​of your website, but it can also provide the necessary security. For example, a CDN can quickly block user IPs with a high frequency of requests, but preventing DDoS attacks is also part of a CDN's duties.

DDoS attacks are quickly becoming the most common form of cyber threat. They have grown rapidly in the past year, both in number and frequency. The trend you see now is that attacks are of shorter duration, but that a larger number of “packets-per-second” are sent during an attack. Not only companies, but also consumers are increasingly becoming victims of such attacks.

As a company you naturally want to prevent your website from becoming the target of such a DDoS attack. A company in the ecommerce industry, for example, should not think about the fact that during a peak period such as Black Friday the website is down due to such an attack. Here too, a party that offers CDN can provide the solution.

A DDoS attack is characterized by attacking a target from globally distributed devices, collected in a so-called botnet. It differs from other denial-of-service (DoS) attacks in that it uses a single Internet-connected device (one network connection) to flood a target with malicious traffic.

A step in the right direction

CDNs are of course not a real panacea. They can't suddenly magically speed up sites with fundamental issues related to the primary hosting environment or application configuration. Therefore, mitigating potential performance issues is crucial to getting the most out of a CDN.

Because we attach great importance to quality, the platforms we build are taken care of down to the last detail. That is why we almost always recommend providing a new platform with a CDN. We have been working with CDN provider Cloudflare for years. A party that offers different packages and never has a problem. 

Do you want advice about CDNs or the improving your current website or platform? Please contact us to see how we can help you.