CDNs and Edge Networks

A user in Bengaluru should not need to cross an ocean for every image, script, and public API response generated in Virginia.

A content delivery network, or CDN, places servers across many network locations and directs each client toward a suitable location. The client connects to an edge server operated near its network path. That server can return cached content, apply request policies, or forward the request to the origin.

The edge does not make physical distance disappear. It changes which requests need to cross that distance. A cache hit ends at the edge. A cache miss still reaches the origin, but the CDN can reuse origin connections, combine duplicate requests, and carry traffic over an engineered backbone.