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Content delivery network
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<p>A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a geographically distributed network of <a href="/facts/Proxy_server/ArhwQE74">proxy servers</a> and their <a href="/facts/Data_center/DS5wJY41">data centers</a>. The goal is to provide high <a href="/facts/Availability_(system)/VENVjwAb">availability</a> and performance ("speed") by distributing the service spatially relative to <a href="/facts/End_user/7IM9qu7N">end users</a>. CDNs came into existence in the late 1990s as a means for alleviating the performance bottlenecks of the Internet as the Internet was starting to become a mission-critical medium for people and enterprises. Since then, CDNs have grown to serve a large portion of the Internet content today, including web objects (text, graphics and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (<a href="/facts/E-commerce/7vxeea0Y">e-commerce</a>, <a href="/facts/Web_portal/Fj25GpUE">portals</a>), <a href="/facts/Live_streaming/rsFwFXrD">live streaming</a> media, on-demand streaming media, and <a href="/facts/Social_media/kUIkfpIA">social media</a> sites. </p><p>CDNs are a <a href="/facts/Abstraction_layer/EV8c84SY">layer</a> in the internet ecosystem. Content owners such as media companies and e-commerce vendors pay CDN operators to deliver their content to their end users. In turn, a CDN pays <a href="/facts/Internet_service_provider/dUacAxef">Internet service providers</a> (ISPs), carriers, and network operators for hosting its servers in their data centers. </p><p>CDN is an umbrella term spanning different types of content delivery services: <a href="/facts/Video_streaming/4rPhSq0Y">video streaming</a>, software downloads, web and mobile content acceleration, licensed/managed CDN, transparent caching, and services to measure CDN performance, <a href="/facts/Load_balancing_(computing)/jddk6ang">load balancing</a>, Multi CDN switching and analytics and cloud intelligence. CDN vendors may cross over into other industries like security, <a href="/facts/DDoS/6nkoK02J">DDoS</a> protection and <a href="/facts/Web_application_firewall/Ve2CL1DI">web application firewalls</a> (WAF), and WAN optimization. </p><p>Notable content delivery service providers include <a href="/facts/Akamai_Technologies/4sWGQqrP">Akamai Technologies</a>, <a href="/facts/Edgio/w9j6sWjm">Edgio</a>, <a href="/facts/Cloudflare/CmQr5dy4">Cloudflare</a>, <a href="/facts/Amazon_CloudFront/DwmrTHfl">Amazon CloudFront</a>, <a href="/facts/Fastly/XeL0SWxo">Fastly</a>, and <a href="/facts/Google_Cloud_Platform/lPTNk7l6">Google Cloud CDN</a>. </p>