Announcing PhotonIQ: The New AI CDN For Accelerating Apps, APIs, Websites and Services

What is the Difference Between CDN and GDN?

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What is CDN?

A CDN can be termed as a network of servers distributed geographically to deliver static content to the user allowing the website to cache the content quickly due to being closer to the user. The CDNs are linked between origin servers and edge networks to cache the static content through and let the origin server deliver the dynamic data and attain a quick response from the website and to the user over the edge. 

What is GDN?

The Global Data Network or GDN offers dynamic content incorporated over the edge which the CDN does not offer. The GDN is based on cutting-edge computer science incorporating the latest research on messaging, event processing, data consistency, and replication.

What is the difference between CDN & GDN?

Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Global Data Network (GDN) both serve as data replication centers across the globe to maintain a faster, secure, and scalable data transmission to the end-user. However, both have their drawbacks and benefits regarding data as well as content types over the internet.

In today’s times, websites, APIs, and applications need to possess a low latency rate and be highly responsive to the users. This can be achieved through the deployment of data centers carrying associated data over the edge and close to the user.

CDNs are intended to deliver static content, allowing cached data from the origin to multiple PoPs. But they do not aid in providing dynamic content type at the edge, as the transition of dynamic content would acquire many complexities in order to be delivered across the globe. Dynamic application data requires a single backend datacenter to work efficiently and it has proved very challenging to cope with latency and consistency problems, as well as distributed databases and dynamic content for a distributed application over the edge network. 

Closing thoughts

Content Delivery Network or CDN is still being utilized, as it is known for its security, redundancy, and lesser load times, but GDN has provided superior services facilitating web users due to its instant performance and consistency guarantees anywhere in the world.

The Macrometa Global Data Network is a hyper distributed cloud that enables businesses to leverage the power of 100s of data centers to achieve ultra-low-latency performance with ready-to-go industry solutions or customized offerings.

Related reading:

Expanding the Edge with Macrometa and Akamai

The Shastra of Macrometa - How Macrometa Works

Platform

PhotonIQ
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