[imported_silkroad]

Originally Posted by john2k

The main goal with CDNs, the way I understand it, is to reduce network latency by reducing the distance between the end us er and the content..

Actually that is only one "main goal" of a CDN.

We find that using a CDN also significantly reduces the load on the primary server. Here as some example stats from our CDN provider for our site, and this is off peak:

Last 30 Minutes Data Trans: 578.03 MB 
Last 30 Minutes Total Hits: 106,167 
Last 30 Minutes Hits/sec: 59 

Last Hour Data Trans: 1.14 GB 
Last Hour Total Hits: 214,881 
Last Hour Hits/sec: 60 

Last Day Data Trans: 19.73 GB 
Last Day Total Hits: 3,739,688 
Last Day Hits/sec: 43 

Last Week Data Trans: 108.18 GB 
Last Week Total Hits: 21,048,256 
Last Week Hits/sec: 35

Taking 43 hits per second off any server improves performance. So, CDNs provide both better delivery globally, and better origin server performance.

Also, there is a huge difference between "the theory of using a CDN" and actually using one. I find it a more-than-funny having folks who do not use a CDN to be explaining to me, using a CDN that serve over 20 million objects a week, the benefits of a CDN.