CDN

CDN stands for Content Delivery Network: a network of servers around the world that store copies of your site’s static files — images, scripts, stylesheets, videos — and serve them from a location near the visitor.

Instead of every request traveling to one origin hosting server, the CDN answers from an “edge” node closer by. That usually means faster loads, less load on your origin, and better resilience when traffic spikes. It pairs well with efforts to improve Core Web Vitals.

A real-life example of a CDN

Imagine one bakery that ships bread across the country from a single kitchen. Delivery is slow and expensive. A CDN is like opening local pickup points that already stock the popular loaves: customers get them faster, and the main kitchen isn’t overwhelmed.

Providers like Cloudflare, Fastly, and AWS CloudFront are common. A CDN helps speed and availability, but it isn’t magic security by itself — misconfigured or abused CDNs can also hide problems. For a deeper look, see What’s the Deal with CDNs? and practical scaling tips in Scale Without Tears.