DNS Bytes: Tip - How to Use Multi CDN Based on Best Performance

Using Multi-CDN to Make Performance- and Preference-based Decisions

If you operate a content-rich website or application, you’re likely using two or more content delivery networks (CDNs)—or at least you should be! While having multiple CDNs is pretty much a necessity these days, the downside is having to manage them. This can be frustrating and complex, and that’s putting it mildly.

But what if there was a way to manage all your CDNs in one place and make performance-based decisions for an optimal end-user experience every time? 

Good news!

With Constellix’s Multi-CDN Management tool, you can manage all your CDNs within one interface and configure them to make smart traffic decisions based on CDN performance. It’s really just as simple as adding your CDNs to Constellix! 

Once properly configured in our system, we automatically route traffic based on the best-performing resource—a true set it and forget it configuration.

Want more control?

We also let you make configurations based on YOUR preference. If you want a particular CDN to receive traffic in a specific region, you can use our weighted distribution and/or deviation allowance feature. This is also great for managing commits. 

Weighted Distributions for CDNs

For instance, if you have two CDNs in South America and want one of them to receive the bulk of the traffic, you would simply edit the CDN pool for this region. In the example below, we are using StackPath and Fastly. If you want to direct the majority of your traffic to the Fastly CDN for capacity, economical reasons, or for commit purposes, you can simply specify a higher weight for Fastly. Notice that they don’t have to equal 100 or need to be even.

What the below example is saying is that Fastly will receive approximately 85% more traffic. To control how often your pool will change which endpoints are being served, you can use Deviation Allowance. The lower the allowance, the more often the pool will update which endpoints are being served.

Multi-CDN with DNS Failover for 100% Uptime

To ensure 100% uptime, our Multi-CDN management tool also comes with built-in, enhanced CDN Failover. This way, if your preferred CDN happens to go down, your traffic will be routed to the fastest and healthiest resource in your pool until your preferred CDN is back online. 

Quick Facts: Constellix Multi-CDN Management Feature Highlights

• No upfront costs
• Manage all your CDNs in one place
• Provides 100% uptime
• Significantly improve speed and performance
• Manage commits with weighted distribution and/or deviation allowances
• Bring your own data (BYOD)
• Doubles your coverage map
• No coding required
• Enhanced CDN Failover
• GeoDNS + Load Balancing