Anyone using a CDN?

[MooreFish]

Just wondering if anyone is using/has used a content delivery network.

We have some large video files (can't really put them on youtube) which at times can impact performance on our web servers.

I like the idea of both delivering static content from a server located in the same region as your website visitor to speed things up, as well as having the process managed by a third party, but was curious if anyone could share some experiences either good or bad.

I guess at the end of the day, I'm just looking to justify the additional cost.

[Graham]

Did you just make up that acronym?

[MooreFish]

Um....no.

A content delivery network is where you take your static files, upload them to the network, and they replicate the files to a series of servers worldwide. Then, when a user makes a request for one of the files, it gets downloaded from the server which is closest to them geographically.

[Giorgio]

CDN is one of the things recommended by Google Page Speed and/or Yahoo YSlow.

[Turtleknife]

Yeah I use Amazon S3 for some private videos available only to subscribers. If your main concern is video delivery there are other options too like WebVideoZone and Screencast.com - neither are CDNs but offer reliable video delivery.

Another option you might want to consider is Youtube since they just introduced an "UNLISTED" option. If you separate your video into parts shorter than 10 minutes (this is always good IMHO) then upload your video but use the unlisted feature, and also uncheck related videos.

You can then embed that video on any page you like, while it NEVER showing up in search or on Youtube either. It's basically free hosting - and they have HD and widescreen too. Hard to pass up free.