Use case · CDN & delivery
CDN provider infrastructure
Building a content delivery network means running caching edge nodes in many locations, each needing fast storage, heavy bandwidth, good connectivity, and strong performance to serve users nearby. It is a substantial undertaking. We provide powerful, well-connected servers that make capable CDN nodes in our locations, with the bandwidth caching demands — a strong European foundation, though not a turnkey global CDN.
Key points
- Building a CDN means running caching edge nodes in many locations near users.
- Each node needs fast storage and memory for caching, and strong performance.
- CDN nodes serve heavy bandwidth, so connectivity and peering are central.
- Building your own CDN is a substantial undertaking versus using an existing one.
- We provide powerful, well-connected nodes in our locations — a European foundation, not a global CDN.
What does building a CDN need?
Building a content delivery network means operating caching servers — edge nodes — in many locations, each holding cached content and serving it to users nearby, connected by a network that distributes content and routes users to the closest node. A content delivery network's purpose is to serve content to users from locations near them, reducing latency and offloading origins, which requires nodes spread across the geography the network serves, each caching content and serving local users, with the means to keep the nodes' caches populated and to direct users to the right node. This distributed infrastructure is what building a CDN entails.
So building a CDN needs several things at each node — caching storage, heavy bandwidth, strong performance — and across the network, the reach of many locations and the routing to use them. Each node caches content and serves users, needing fast storage, memory, bandwidth, and performance; and the network needs enough nodes, well-placed, with routing to send users to the nearest. This page focuses on the infrastructure for CDN nodes and building a delivery network; the origin such a network draws from is covered on the CDN origin page, while what follows attends to what CDN nodes need and where we fit in building a network.
Edge nodes and points of presence
A content delivery network is built from edge nodes — points of presence — in many locations, each serving the users near it, so the network's reach comes from where its nodes are. Each node is a location where the network caches content and serves nearby users, so the more locations a network has nodes in, the closer it can be to more users, reducing their latency. A network's geographic reach is thus a function of its points of presence, and building a network with wide reach means establishing nodes in many locations, each a capable caching server serving its region.
The number and placement of nodes determine how well a network serves its users, and building wide geographic reach is much of the challenge of a CDN. Serving users worldwide with low latency needs nodes across the world; serving a region needs nodes across that region; and each node must be a capable server well-placed and well-connected in its location. We provide capable, well-connected servers that make strong CDN nodes in our locations, so that an organisation building a delivery network has powerful points of presence where we operate — each a capable caching server for its region — which can form part of a network, particularly a European one, as the later section on our role makes clear.
Caching infrastructure at the edge
Each CDN node caches content to serve it to users, so the nodes need fast storage and memory suited to caching, holding the content users request and serving it quickly. A node caches the content it serves — popular or recently-requested content kept locally so it can be served without fetching from the origin each time — which needs storage for the cached content and, for the hottest content, memory to serve it fastest. Fast storage such as NVMe suits caching, serving cached content quickly, and memory holds the most-requested content for the fastest serving.
The caching infrastructure at each node shapes how well the node serves users, since a well-cached node serves most requests locally and quickly. A node with enough fast storage caches much content, achieving a high cache-hit ratio where most requests are served from its cache rather than fetched from the origin, which is what makes the network fast and offloads the origin. We provide CDN node infrastructure with the fast storage and memory caching needs — NVMe storage for the cached content and memory for the hottest — so that each node caches effectively and serves users from its cache quickly, which is central to a delivery network's performance and to offloading the origin behind it.
Bandwidth and connectivity
CDN nodes serve heavy bandwidth to users, so connectivity and bandwidth are central to CDN node infrastructure — a node serving many users much content needs substantial bandwidth and good network connectivity. The whole point of a node is to serve content to many nearby users, which consumes significant bandwidth, so each node must have the bandwidth to serve its users and good connectivity to reach them well, including good peering with the networks its users are on. A node short of bandwidth or poorly connected cannot serve its users well, undermining its purpose.
This makes bandwidth and network quality primary considerations for CDN nodes, since serving content to users is bandwidth-heavy and connectivity-dependent. Each node needs enough bandwidth for the content it serves, and good connectivity — well-peered, well-routed — so users reach it quickly and it serves them fast. We provide CDN node infrastructure with heavy bandwidth and good connectivity, so that each node can serve its users the content they request with the bandwidth and network quality that content delivery demands — because CDN nodes are, above all, bandwidth-serving infrastructure, and the bandwidth and connectivity of each node are central to it serving users well.
Performance of edge servers
CDN nodes serve many users, so each node needs strong performance to handle the requests and serve the content quickly, alongside its caching and bandwidth. A busy node handles many requests from users, serving cached content and sometimes fetching from the origin, so it needs the compute to handle the request volume and serve content promptly, especially at scale. While much of a node's work is serving cached content, doing so for many users at once, and handling the requests and connections, takes real performance, so the nodes must be capable servers.
Providing this means capable servers for the nodes, with the performance to serve their users well under load. A node serving many users needs the processing to handle the requests and connections and serve the content quickly, so underpowered nodes would struggle at scale. We provide capable, high-performance servers for CDN nodes, with the compute to serve many users' requests promptly, so that each node handles its user load well — serving cached content quickly to many users at once, which, together with the caching and bandwidth, is what makes a node an effective point of presence in a delivery network.
Building your own CDN, or using one?
It is worth being honest that building your own content delivery network is a substantial undertaking, and for most organisations using an existing CDN is the sensible choice — building one makes sense only in particular cases. Establishing nodes across many locations, each capable and well-connected, and the network and routing to use them, is a large, ongoing effort, which is why most organisations use existing content delivery networks rather than building their own. Building your own can make sense for organisations with the scale, specific requirements, or reasons — control, cost at very large scale, particular geographic or sovereignty needs — that justify the undertaking, but it is not a small step.
So the honest position is that building a CDN suits a minority — large operations, specialised needs, or those with strong reasons to control their own delivery network — while most are better served by existing CDNs. For those who do build, or who build a regional or private network, capable nodes are the building blocks. We will not pretend building a CDN is right for everyone; for many, an existing CDN in front of an origin we host is the better path, which the CDN origin page describes. But for those building their own network, especially a European or regional one, we provide the capable nodes it needs, as the next section makes clear — being honest about what building a CDN involves and where we fit in it.
Our role, sovereignty, and where we fit
Our honest role in building a CDN is providing powerful, well-connected nodes in our locations — a strong foundation for a European or regional network, or for European nodes of a wider one — rather than being a turnkey global CDN. We operate capable, well-connected infrastructure in our locations, and these make strong CDN nodes: powerful servers with fast storage for caching, heavy bandwidth, and good connectivity, well-suited to serving European users or forming a regional network. We are clear that we are not a global content delivery network with points of presence in hundreds of locations worldwide; we provide capable nodes where we operate, which is a strong European foundation, not a turnkey worldwide CDN.
For sovereignty, our EU incorporation matters here too: VV Internet Hosting is incorporated in the Netherlands, within the EU, so CDN nodes hosted with us run under European jurisdiction and outside the direct reach of the US CLOUD Act, which suits building a sovereign European delivery presence. We host powerful, well-connected dedicated servers that make capable CDN nodes in our locations, with the caching storage, bandwidth, and performance nodes need, under European jurisdiction. This suits organisations building a European or regional content delivery network, or the European nodes of a wider one, or a sovereign delivery presence. We are candid about our limits: we provide capable nodes in our locations, not a global CDN or a turnkey CDN platform. We are the dedicated, sovereign, well-connected infrastructure for CDN nodes where we operate — and if a European or regional delivery network fits your needs, we can host its nodes well.
Related use cases
Questions
CDN nodes, answered plainly
Common questions about hosting for CDN nodes.
What does building a CDN require?
Caching edge nodes — points of presence — in many locations, each a capable server with fast storage and memory for caching, heavy bandwidth, good connectivity, and strong performance to serve nearby users; plus the network to keep caches populated and route users to the nearest node. The network's reach comes from where its nodes are, so wide reach means nodes in many locations.
Should I build my own CDN or use an existing one?
For most organisations, using an existing CDN is the sensible choice — building one, with capable nodes across many locations and the network to use them, is a substantial, ongoing undertaking. Building your own makes sense mainly for large operations, specialised needs, or strong reasons like control, cost at very large scale, or specific geographic or sovereignty requirements.
Is VV Internet Hosting a global CDN?
No, and we're clear about that. We provide powerful, well-connected servers that make capable CDN nodes in our locations, with the caching storage, bandwidth, and performance nodes need — a strong foundation for a European or regional network, or European nodes of a wider one, under EU jurisdiction. We're not a turnkey global CDN with points of presence in hundreds of locations worldwide.
Planning CDN nodes infrastructure?
We host dedicated, EU-sovereign infrastructure sized to your workload — and we will tell you plainly when something else fits better. Tell us what you're building.