Real-user Monitoring (RUM) and Multi-CDN Provider Use Cases

The importance of DNS and content delivery networks (CDNs) can’t be denied in today’s digitized world. Neither can the data that fuels these services. With such a large array of options available in the industry, it can be difficult to choose the right provider for you. At Constellix, we’re all about transparency and providing value to our customers. If we aren’t able to fill a hole in your online strategy or be a significant benefit to your company, we aren’t going to push you into a business relationship you don’t need. In other words, we aren’t going to sell you rainbows and unicorns just to get you on board.

So let’s get to it.

What is Real-user Monitoring (RUM)?

While it may sound like it, RUM is not a bottle of liquor. Be sure to make that clear when you tell your boss your company needs it to run DNS more efficiently—don’t want them to get the wrong idea. That said, RUM is a community-driven data set, so you can think of it as a networking party of sorts. At its core, RUM is designed to collect data on how websites and applications load on real users’ browsers. It gives you highly detailed views of localized response times for web resources and the ability to improve them when possible. 

What is Synthetic Monitoring?

Synthetic monitoring, on the other hand, is based on simulated user experiences generated from nodes located in data centers. You can think of it as the “CGI” of data monitoring. It attempts to mimic real user behavior but it’s still “simulated.” While there might be over a hundred nodes within a center, it’s impossible for synthetic monitoring to cover the locations of all querying clients. That’s not to say synthetic monitoring isn’t useful. It certainly is. And for organizations that don’t require a high level of granularity, it’s an excellent solution. 

Bring Your Own Data (BYOD) 

RUM and synthetic data are often supplied by a provider, but companies with robust data sets can use their own data for the highest possible level of optimization. Company-provided data can be used exclusively or in combination with external RUM and synthetic data.

How Can RUM and Synthetic Monitoring Help My Business?

RUM and Synthetic monitoring provide insight into how your website or application performs, just in different ways. As explained above, RUM uses data from real users, while synthetic monitoring simulates user experiences based on information received from nodes in data centers. Both monitoring solutions can help IT teams troubleshoot network latency issues and make informed decisions for the domains they manage. What makes RUM stand out is that it gives organizations real business and performance metrics, which can be beneficial for increasing conversion rates and network efficiency. But you can also combine the two, which will give you the best of both worlds.

What is a Content Delivery Network (CDN)?

CDN is a term you hear a lot in the DNS and cloud computing world. But what is it exactly? Simply put, it’s a geographically distributed network of servers intended to improve the performance and availability of web content. CDNs are most utilized by websites and applications that deliver large amounts of dynamic content to a global audience. When using a CDN, queries are sent to the server closest to the end user’s location, which results in faster delivery times and better overall efficiency.  

What is Multi-CDN?

As the name suggests, multi-CDN refers to the use of more than one CDN for a website or application. While a single CDN provides a healthy boost to performance, having multiple CDNs offer significantly more gains in speeds and efficiency. Furthermore, CDNs are notorious for outages and service degradation. That’s why most corporate- and enterprise-level organizations use two or more CDNs to distribute their content. With multiple CDNs, outages are more easily mitigated.

Multi-CDN Management

Of course, having multiple CDNs can be tedious and time-consuming to manage. Luckily, there are providers that offer Multi-CDN management solutions to help streamline the process. With the right provider, IT teams can not only manage all their CDNs in one place, but they can also drastically improve page load times by pairing Multi-CDN management with CDN Failover, Geo-load balancing, and latency monitoring for the best possible service outcomes—including avoiding outages entirely. As such a crucial part of your digital strategy, you want to be sure to choose a provider with a strong infrastructure and a platform that’s built to scale. This begs the question:

Don’t you hate when you sign up for a service and it’s not all it was cracked up to be?

So do we.

RUM and Multi-CDN, the Constellix Way

This is why transparency is so important to us. Too many businesses will sell you the moon and the stars but are unable to live up to their own sales hype. That’s why we’re going to break down our Multi-CDN management platform and RUM data implementation so that you can easily see what we have to offer—and how Constellix is different. 

Constellix’s Multi-CDN Management Solution

Our Multi-CDN solution really is as easy as 1-2-3. No coding is required! With our Multi-CDN wizard, all you need is each of your provider’s API keys. Once the keys are entered, we automatically provision your CDN instances, DNS records, and monitoring checks in six regions of the world. You can easily adjust settings at any time, including adding and removing CDN providers. 

Constellix supports full Integration with the capability of Automatically Provisioning with:

1. AWS Cloudfront
2. CDN77
3. StackPath
4. KeyCDN
   

Quickly add existing CDN configurations from some of the most popular CDN providers:

1. Akamai
2. AWS
3. Azure
4. BUNNYCDN
5. CACHEFLY
6. CDN77
7. FASTLY
8. G-Core Labs
9. KeyCDN
10. StackPath
11. TM CDN (Telekom Malaysia)
    

You can also add custom CDN providers and (optionally) include its own RUM link. For HTTPS, you can quickly and easily add an SSL Certificate for your providers that will be provisioned through Constellix.

Smart DNS Routing With Machine Learning and RUM 

Constellix does the thinking for you by automating your application delivery via AI and machine learning. Our extensive network of monitoring nodes and real-user data routinely verifies which provider is faster in each of our global regions, and then dynamically updates your DNS records to point to your fastest resource. This affords your domain or application noticeable performance gains—even if your CDNs share the same points of presence (PoPs).

You should have the most accurate data at your disposal.

What makes Constellix RUM especially unique is that our data is based on Time to Last Byte (TTLB). Other providers go by Time to First Byte (TTFB), which isn’t providing you with nearly as accurate a picture of your website or application’s performance. When using our community RUM data, you are receiving real user data based on the time it takes for a page to finish loading, not when it first starts to load. 

Enhanced Geo-load balancing and Redundancy

Our Multi-CDN service ensures you’ll never have a single point of failure. Enhanced Failover is automatically incorporated, so if one of your CDNs experiences an outage, we’ll seamlessly redirect traffic to a healthy endpoint. You can build your own custom load balancing configurations or let our Internet Traffic Optimization (ITO) solution dynamically route each of users to the fastest and closest resource to their location.

Constellix: The Ultimate Multi-CDN Solution

At Constellix, we don’t just want your business, we want to foster lasting, mutually beneficial partnerships. Our goal is to provide you with the fastest, most accurate DNS and CDN decisions possible and at an impressive price point. All of our services were developed based on direct customer feedback and thousands of use cases.

Ready to take a peek under the hood?

Schedule a customized demo of how Multi-CDN works in Constellix today. Our DNS experts will craft a presentation tailored specifically for the unique needs of your organization. 

Related topics:

RUM vs Synthetic Monitoring

Synthetic & Real User Monitoring Explained

What is a CDN?