Talk:Content delivery network

Payment basis and typical costs

What about some information on the typical basis of payment?

For example, many content distribution or delivery services have a monthly platform fee.

Often, a certain amount of transit (e.g. 200 GB or 1.5 TB, etc.) is included with the platform fee.

Then, there is usually a tiered per GB transit rate for data over and above that included in the platform fee.

Some providers call the platform fee a minimum commitment, but it is effectively the same.

Also, a one time set up fee is common.

Thoughts? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.47.249.247 (talk) 00:52, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

While this is an older comment from 2014, I do agree that a section in this CDN article about "Business models" could be a useful contribution and would help people understand more about how CDNs work. I think the challenge could be to find reliable sources that would provide an overview of CDN business models and practices. There might be a journal article or paper that someone has published on this topic. And maybe a media site has written something about CDN business practices. (My concern is that I could also see 'advertorial'-style paid articles being out there that are biased toward one type of CDN or another.) Regardless, if appropriate sources could be found, I could see this being a useful contribution. - Dyork (talk) 01:21, 8 May 2020 (UTC)

Notable Script CDNs

Both Google (Google Hosted Libraries) and Microsoft (Microsoft Ajax Content Delivery Network) have CDNs that serve a high volume of script content. I couldn't find articles on the Wiki to point to either one, but their omission from this article seems to be an oversight worth looking into. -Draeth Darkstar (talk) 13:58, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

Five years later I note that no one has added these two CDNs to the list. It would need some further research, but if these two CDNs are still appropriate, it may make sense to add them. This might, though, require creating a new Script CDNs sub-section under the section Notable content delivery service providers given that these are different from other CDN types. We would also want to research whether there are other similar CDNs providing similar services that should be listed. (For example, I would wonder if one of the zillion Amazon AWS services would do this.) - Dyork (talk) 01:27, 8 May 2020 (UTC)

Add section on history of CDNs?

Recently I was in a discussion where we were talking about when CDNs first started being used within the Internet's infrastructure. Someone said they started 20 years ago while someone else thought it was newer. My first reaction was to go to this Wikipedia page... where I discovered that there is not a History section. What do others think about adding such a History section? Looking at the history of the page and this Talk page, it looks like perhaps we'd need to watch that section for some CDNs trying to edit the text to promote their company. BUT, I think it could be a useful addition. When I get some time, I would be willing to start such a section, but if someone else has cycles to get it going, that would be great. - Dyork (talk) 14:38, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Add section on Image CDNs?

There's been significant talk of Image CDNs over the past few years. Image CDNs are CDNs that integrate a significant image optimization aspect in their offering to further diminish bandwidth consumption and ultimately improve UX. Google has been either the first or among the first to mention Image CDNs. Cloudinary, Imgix, Akamai, ImageEngine, Fastly and others have products in this space.

Full disclosure: the reason why I am intimately familiar with this field is because my company is a player in the Image CDN arena (ScientiaMobile) but I think I can write a neutral contribution.

I will check my mailbox in a few days and this space. Unless someone advises otherwise, I'll take a stab at creating the first draft of the paragraph. Thank you. Passani (talk) 21:01, 6 May 2020 (UTC)

@Passani: - That could be something to include as a new sub-section under the CDN Trends section. Given that you have very clear WP:COI here, but also have subject matter expertise that could be useful, I would suggest you go ahead with a first draft of the paragraph and post that here on this Talk page (just here as a reply in this section is fine) so that other editors can assess WP:NPOV before it gets added to the main article. If you can please add citations to reliable sources, that will make it easier for editors to assess. Following that process will just keep it cleaner should anyone else suggest you have a conflict editing the page. Thanks. - Dyork (talk) 01:04, 8 May 2020 (UTC)

@Dyork: here you go:

@Passani: - Thanks. I need a bit of time to look at that. My one immediate reaction is that none of the other sub-sections of CDN Trends have a table like this. Not to say this sub-section should not, just more commenting on the difference. Any other editors have any opinions on this proposed new subsection? - Dyork (talk) 17:51, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

@Dyork: - I am in no particular hurry to get this published, but since I spent some time working on this and since there have been no comments in one week, can I go ahead and publish? Or you can do it as far as I am concerned. Thanks. - Passani (talk) 15:06, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

@Passani: - Given your connection to image CDNs, it is probably cleaner if someone unconnected such as myself moves it into place. Let me see if I can find anyone else who can comment. Scanning through the history of the article to see if there is anyone who may have opinions. - Dyork (talk) 22:09, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

@Dyork: - I think the section is good to go. As you can see from the conversation below, Sykes83 agrees that the content is good. Will you go ahead and move it into place? Thanks. Passani (talk) 22:47, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

@Reddishmariposa:, @Zac67:, @Sykes83:, @Hamdusa: - Greetings! As you have all edited this article about CDNs before, do you have any opinions on adding this proposed new subsection on Image CDNs? I was thinking it might fit in the CDN Trends section. It is authored by Passani, who has indicated he has COI, but has aimed to create a NPOV contribution. I am okay with it myself, but I would appreciate any comments from editors with more CDN experience than I have. - Dyork (talk) 22:09, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

@Dyork:Hola! Thanks for the ping! Overall the section looks good to me. The only comment I have is that "Image CDN" isn't really a term that I see in widespread use right now. Would it be better to label the section "Image Optimization and Delivery" (or similar) since it is still a more common term (WP:COMMONNAME), and within that talk about the emergence of the concept of the Image CDN to describe companies that have a combination of capabilities? I don't have a strong opinion either way though. --Sykes83 (talk) 22:29, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

@Sykes83: - I respectfully disagree that "Image CDN" is not in widespread use. Google will quickly confirm that, with all major CDN promptly responding to the Image CDN term (everyone is bidding on those keywords in Google). Passani (talk) 23:23, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

@Passani:, @Dyork: So far, it seems to only be commonly used by companies with a vested interest in promoting that term. Of the 6 product pages that you link to in your table, the term "Image CDN" only appears on one of them, but "image optimization" appears on all but one of them. I would say that Image Optimization (and Delivery) is a far more common term, and is far more widely used, and per WP:COMMONNAME would be a better title. As I said, I don't have a strong opinion and won't object if you want to move forward with integrating your edit, but that was the only part of the suggested edit that I believe might not be in NPOV. --Sykes83 (talk) 23:49, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

@Sykes83: - Fair enough. I then suggest "Image Optimization and Delivery (Image CDNs)". WDYT? Passani (talk) 00:26, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

@Passani: Works for me! Overall, it looks great! --Sykes83 (talk) 00:45, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

@Sykes83: - Cool. I could go ahead and edit the page, but Dyork recommends that I let someone else do it because of my WP:COI. Will you do the honors? Passani (talk) 02:36, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

@Dyork: Thanks for the ping. I agree with Sykes83 that "Image Optimization and Delivery" is a better term as it better covers some services that provide diverse feature set. I also added another provider in the list 'PageCDN'. I don't know if it is correct to do before the list goes public. So, disclosing it here. Hamdusa (talk) 11:15, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

 Done - Content moved into main page. Thank you Passani for writing it, and to Sykes83 and Hamdusa for the feedback. - Dyork (talk) 01:39, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

Image Optimization and Delivery (Image CDNs)

In 2017 Addy Osmany of Google started referring to software solutions that could integrate naturally with the Responsive Web Design paradigm (with particular reference to the <picture> element) as Image CDNs.. The expression referred to the ability for a web architecture to serve multiple versions of the same image through HTTP, depending on the properties of the browser requesting it, as determined by either the browser or the server-side logic. The purpose of Image CDNs was, in Google's vision, to serve high-quality images (or, better, images perceived as high-quality by the human eye) while preserving download speed, thus contributing to a great User experience (UX).

Arguably, the Image CDN term was originally a misnomer, as neither Cloudinary nor Imgix (the examples quoted by Google in the 2017 guide by Addy Osmany) were, at the time, a CDN in the classical sense of the term. Shortly afterwards, though, several companies offered solutions that allowed developers to serve different versions of their graphical assets according to several strategies. Many of these solutions were built on top of traditional CDNs, such as Akamai, CloudFront, Fastly, Verizon Digital Media Services and Cloudflare. At the same time, other solutions that already provided an image multi-serving service joined the Image CDN definition by either offering CDN functionality natively (ImageEngine) or integrating with one of the existing CDNs (Cloudinary/Akamai, Imgix/Fastly).

While providing a universally agreed-on definition of what an Image CDN is may not be possible, generally speaking, an Image CDN supports the following three components :

• A Content Delivery Network (CDN) for fast serving of images.
• Image manipulation and optimization, either on-the-fly though URL directives, in batch mode (through manual upload of images) or fully-automatic (or a combination of these).
• Device Detection (aka Device Intelligence), i.e. the ability to determine the properties of the requesting browser and/or device through analysis of the User-Agent string, HTTP Accept headers, Client-Hints or JavaScript.

The following table summarizes the current situation with the main software CDNs in this space:

Main Image CDNs on the market

Name	CDN	Image Optimization	Device Detection
Akamai ImageManager	Y	Batch mode	based on HTTP Accept header
Cloudflare Polish	Y	fully-automatic	based on HTTP Accept header
Cloudinary	Through Akamai	Batch, URL directives	Accept header, Client-Hints
Fastly IO	Y	URL directives	based on HTTP Accept header
ImageEngine	Y	fully-automatic	WURFL, Client-Hints, Accept header
Imgix	Through Fastly	fully-automatic	Accept header / Client-Hints
PageCDN	Y	URL directives	based on HTTP Accept header

Passani (talk) 17:24, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

References

Create Archive 1 page

 Done Created first archive page, Talk:Content_delivery_network/Archive_1, following H:ARC process. Moved old, completed sections of this page from 2009-2013 over to that archive page. You can browse the page or you can search using the box on top of this page - Dyork (talk) 01:14, 8 May 2020 (UTC)

Question about addition of imagekit.io

Just flagging that today, in this revision, there was the addition of links and text related to imagekit.io by an editor with only a single contribution so far. This might be a legitimate edit, or it might be someone from that company directly editing the page. I don't know enough about Imagekit to know if the edit is appropriate. Flagging it so that other editors with greater knowledge of image CDNs can take a look. - Dyork (talk) 01:03, 16 June 2020 (UTC)

Federated CDNs?

Have federated CDNs even happened? Ten years have gone by since Rayburn's speculative 2011 article. Please update and reference the section or it should be deleted. Nurg (talk) 22:15, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

Yes and no. The current landscape is such that CDNs are interoperable such that one CDN can pull, cache, and delivery contact from another but they aren't really federated. Additionally, more or less supplanting the idea of federation, multi-CDN aggregators (e.g., NS1) have popped up to fill that gap. There's also the Open Caching standard (in development by the Streaming Video Technology Alliance (SVTA)) which is being watched closely and even implemented by some CDNs. There's even an Open Caching only CDN, Qwilt.

I'd like to update this article with this information once I've fixed the provider list. Ryanb-I-am (talk) 18:03, 13 February 2023 (UTC)

Any chance someone could write this in proper English

I gave up during the first paragraph

"distributing the service spatially relative"

"CDNs are a layer in the internet ecosystem."

Meaningless.

And it gets worse "A more recently defined and robust solution is provided by the Open Pluggable Edge Services"

And I came here via the Cloudflare page. I am no clearer about why Cloudflare is blocking some sites recently. Neither it seems are the sites/browsers being blocked

Cannonmc (talk) 02:53, 7 May 2022 (UTC)

Updated List of CDN Providers

Hello, I'm new here but I'd like to take a stab at updating the list of current and defunct providers. Dan Rayburn published an updated list on the Streaming Media Blog not long ago and there are obvious issues with the exiting list and it's organization. For example, Verizon Media (Yahoo!/Aol) was divested from Verizon, Verizon Digital Media Services (VDMS) was renamed Edgecast under the new Yahoo! and was subsequently sold to Limelight who rebranded as Edgio.

There are several other examples of inaccuracies so I'd like make those changes. Anyone have concerns? Ryanb-I-am (talk) 17:54, 13 February 2023 (UTC)

@Dyork, would you be able to review my suggestions above? Thank you! 23.126.156.71 (talk) 21:21, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

Ryanb-I-am Ugh... following a few of the links does show how much has changed. For instance, should Edgecast even continue to exist as a separate article? And yes "Limelight" needs to be changed to "Edgio" and so much more. I guess there's a larger question - should we even have the list? As you note, lists like this go out of date, and they also become a magnet for the PR/marketing people from various companies who want to add their company to the list. The question always is "what is a 'Notable' CDN?" (I think some of us have used "do they have a well-written Wikipedia article about them?" as a criteria.) So my question now is - should we just drop the list? Would the article be fine without it? (Comments from other editors?) - Dyork (talk) 21:36, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

You definitely make good points. I think you're correct in your assessment that the list of CDNs should just go away. I think the CDN companies who want to should just reference this article in their own articles.

IMHO I think this article should focus on the generic concepts and not on the specifics of who's doing what specifically, aside from some potential historical context -- assuming it can be attributed and cited properly. Ryanb-I-am (talk) 19:03, 1 March 2023 (UTC)

'Telco CDN advantages' section should be adjusted or removed

Reading the "Telco CDN advantages" section today I noticed two things:

• The text feels promotional and not exactly NPOV.
• There are no citations backing up any of what is said. It needs reliable sources.
• The couple of citations that are there are from 12 years ago in 2011. Is all of this still true in 2023?

My initial reaction is that the text needs to be changed to be more neutral and non-promotional, and citations need to be added to back up all statements. Or this should be removed. Comments? - Dyork (talk) 21:43, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

@Dyork, agreed. I think the "Trends" section should also be reworked entirely into discussing the types of CDN delivery and their use cases. I think the topics of telco/ISP use and federation (including open caching) should be described as techniques/strategies and should be written as such. The article needs to be reeled back in to focus on the facts of what CDN is, how it works, and why and how it's used.

Since there is a lot of updating needed, I'm happy to write up a mostly new article for community review while keeping it very generic and focused on the architecture. Let me know if that would be acceptable, and if so, how to proceed. Ryanb-I-am (talk) 19:17, 1 March 2023 (UTC)