There are various ways to implement and utilize Multi CDN, and it is critical to evaluate different factors due to factors such as bandwidth commitments, costs, overage charges, and many more. Here is a list of factors that can impact your Multi CDN strategy:
Geo performance
An important factor to consider while selecting CDNs is where the users are located. Select a CDN with good performance in regions where most of your users are located. When considering global traffic, it’s very important to take scalability into account. For instance, if traffic growth from Dubai or India is to be expected, it’ll make sense to pick a CDN for your Multi CDN that will excel in that specific region with exceptional performance.
Real user monitoring (RUM)
Using Multi CDN without RUM is like a body without a soul. RUM helps you to understand network status, and determine which CDN might perform the best in different scenarios. You can then choose the best possible CDN and avoid any underperforming ones. The traditional way was to use RUM and manage Multi CDN separately, and manually adjust whenever needed. But there are solutions that combine both features together, that can help you manage everything on the same platform more effectively such as mlytics AI Load Balancing feature.
Trends and historical data
A good set of trend and historical data of a CDN gives you full information on its performance such as latency and availability on a specific date. With these data, you’ll be able to determine whether if a CDN qualifies for your Multi CDN strategy. However, this kind of information is not commonly shared on the market and can only be accessed through certain tools. Another way is to talk directly with the CDN providers and ask for these data.
Price / cost
If Multi CDN is managed correctly, it’ll actually cost you the same as a single CDN. In fact, single CDN sometimes costs you more because:
- The overage fee may add up when unexpected traffic surge happens
- For international businesses, it’s not optimized for cross-region website delivery, which may put all international traffic on one CDN that may risk overage fees
- The lack of redundancy may cost more (e.g. lost of sales/leads and etc) if it goes down
Coverage
Some CDN offer global coverage while some have better performance in specific regions. The key is to look for more Points of Presence (PoPs) because the better the coverage the better the performance it’ll be. If China is one of your targeted regions, then you may want to put more effort into finding the correct options as CDN solution for China may have more factors to consider.