[imported_silkroad]

Originally Posted by john2k

I was simply explaining the true design purpose for CDNs and the business need that they were created to address. That is, getting the content closer to end users in order to better address the network issues.

I worked with Akamai and their CDN a number of years ago, long before the new CDN players we have now.

The purpose of CDNs have been to improve content delivery. The "top" established CDNs (like Akamai) use proprietary algorithms to determine the best place to serve content. The best node / location to serve content may or may-not be "closer" to the end user.

Most commercial CDNs do not rely on "closeness" but on a type of global performance map that directs users to the best delivery point, regardless of geographic distance.

So, for well designed CDNs (from the beginning of CDN history), network latency, load, bandwidth, etc were all key criteria to determine where to serve content.

Currently, one CDN I know of is serving EU users from the US because their EU nodes have been under a severe DDOS attack (another advantage of using a CDN in practice).

Cheers.