So, what exactly is a CDN? To put it simply, content delivery networks (CDNs) are designed to enhance the speed and reach of content streaming over the internet. CDNs are typically composed of geographically dispersed servers built to distribute streamed content spatially, relative to end users. Think about it this way: if you’ve ever wanted to binge-watch your favorite streaming video show but remember it feeling painfully slow in earlier years, then you know the difference a CDN can make.
Enterprise content delivery networks (eCDNs) use technologies such as multicasting, caching, and peer-to-peer forwarding to improve organization bandwidth utilization for broadcast-style, one-to-many media streaming events. Such events (think town halls or all-hands webinars) are notoriously bandwidth-intensive since they distribute large amounts of simultaneous identical media streams to remote office locations, often serving thousands of end-users. As a result, eCDN solutions in recent years have become an integral part of many organizations’ networking environments.