Is Your Server Tech Meeting Your CDN’s Needs?

To understand why your server technology is so important to CDN performance, it’s helpful to compare your whole tech stack to a professional sports team. In a sports team, you may have a better playbook than the other teams, but if you don’t have the talent to execute those plays, the strategy is wasted. Similarly, no matter how well-positioned your CDN is, if you don’t have the hardware to keep up with traffic, it’s all for nothing.

Every CDN has three main hardware elements: PoPs (points of presence), caching servers, and storage (SSD/HDD/RAM). In this article, we’ll discuss a few indicators that will motivate you to analyze your server technology and decide if it’s time for an upgrade.

CDN Metrics Don’t Lie

In our sports team analogy, the ultimate indicator of team success is its win-loss record, and other metrics are the building blocks to help you get to victory. To find out if your server tech is contributing to the success of your business, you should ask: Are my servers meeting the traffic demands of my customers?

To answer this question, it’s important to not only look at the past but also the future. Consider three factors that may indicate you need an upgrade:

1. Increased traffic (actual or anticipated). The most obvious reason why an organization will upgrade its server hardware is due to current traffic growth. However, they may also anticipate future traffic increases due to consumer trends, new technology, and highly sought-after content.
   
   
2. Old hardware. Aging hardware is another indicator that it may be time to upgrade. While your hardware may not be underperforming yet, it’s a good idea to start the upgrade before your customers begin to notice. At the very least, you can begin the planning phase because it takes time to get approval and work out the logistics.
   
   
3. Strategic technology planning. Hardware upgrades do more than allow you to handle more server traffic; they give you a competitive advantage. Business leaders may find that a smoother content experience, more capacity, or the ability to deliver new types of content help give their company a unique selling point.
   

By verifying that your server technology matches your organization’s current and future needs, you’ll ensure customers have positive experiences with your brand. So how can you find hardware customized to your needs?

The problem with a lot of big-brand hardware is that you have a limited number of options to work with. This means that you have no choice but to tweak your business to fit those solutions. This is not the case at Intequus. We provide completely flexible CDN solutions that can be as powerful and as cost-effective as you need them to be. In our Solutions Lab, we can test custom setup options to make sure they truly meet your needs and our high-quality standards.

You’ve gotten this far because of your business playbook. And, like a sports team benefits from talented players, your organization can improve with the right technology. This article discussed a few signs that your CDN technology might need an upgrade, including:

• Increases in current or anticipated traffic
• Underperforming or outdated hardware
• Planned hardware upgrades to help your company stay competitive

These indicators can help you make moves that let your organization stand out. And remember the key question: Is our technology meeting the needs of our customers? If you want help equipping your organization with CDN technology custom-built for your needs, talk to one of our CDN experts. They’ll help you create solutions for long-term business success. Chat now.