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Yes, the benefits are substantial. I used to have a static web site served out of a Dallas data center, with a great network connection, from a powerful bare me

Yes, the benefits are substantial. I used to have a static web site served out of a Dallas data center, with a great network connection, from a powerful bare metal machine that did nothing else. Sitting in Austin, it felt instant, equal to localhost speed, until I tried accessing it while traveling, especially overseas. It's not just geographic latency you're addressing with a CDN, you're also reducing the number of network hops. It's not uncommon to experience higher latency going from SF to San Jose datacenter just because you're on a "wrong" ISP. A good CDN usually has a POP on the same network as you.

esperent 6y ago
I live in Vietnam and frequently give tech advice to people regarding websites they are developing. Most sites on the works fine, but I can tell straight away when someone has hosted their site like you have described - because it will take >5 minutes to load! And they'll be telling me that it's fine, and I have to explain, yes, it's fine if you only want people in the same country as you to access the site. If you want it to work worldwide, you'll have to do better. Fortunately, these days that just means creating a free Cloudflare account.
- basilgohar 6y ago
  Thanks for sharing your perspective. In your case, are all CDNs equal? Do I just have to throw my content to the biggest provider? Don't get me wrong. Disenfranchisng non-Western visitors is the last thing I want to do, but the issue is not CDN or not, it's caching content closer to people whose ISPs don't provide sufficient service outside their own borders. I dislike that CDNs are the only way around this and I feel like it is centralizing Internet access in an unfavorable way.
  - esperent 6y ago
    > In your case, are all CDNs equal? The big data centers in this region are in Singapore and I expect all CDNs have a presence there, so probably. I haven't exactly done any benchmarking though. > the issue is not CDN or not, it's caching content closer to people whose ISPs don't provide sufficient service outside their own borders. How would you do this without a CDN (on a small budget)?
- CodesInChaos 6y ago
  What causes these performance problems? Latency across the globe shouldn't be that bad (200ms or so). Is it limited bandwidth into your country?

esperent 6y ago

I live in Vietnam and frequently give tech advice to people regarding websites they are developing. Most sites on the works fine, but I can tell straight away when someone has hosted their site like you have described - because it will take >5 minutes to load! And they'll be telling me that it's fine, and I have to explain, yes, it's fine if you only want people in the same country as you to access the site. If you want it to work worldwide, you'll have to do better. Fortunately, these days that just means creating a free Cloudflare account.

basilgohar 6y ago
Thanks for sharing your perspective. In your case, are all CDNs equal? Do I just have to throw my content to the biggest provider? Don't get me wrong. Disenfranchisng non-Western visitors is the last thing I want to do, but the issue is not CDN or not, it's caching content closer to people whose ISPs don't provide sufficient service outside their own borders. I dislike that CDNs are the only way around this and I feel like it is centralizing Internet access in an unfavorable way.
- esperent 6y ago
  > In your case, are all CDNs equal? The big data centers in this region are in Singapore and I expect all CDNs have a presence there, so probably. I haven't exactly done any benchmarking though. > the issue is not CDN or not, it's caching content closer to people whose ISPs don't provide sufficient service outside their own borders. How would you do this without a CDN (on a small budget)?
CodesInChaos 6y ago
What causes these performance problems? Latency across the globe shouldn't be that bad (200ms or so). Is it limited bandwidth into your country?