In this day and age, time is money—both for website developers and site visitors. Page load times can be the difference that impacts search engine rankings, ad revenue, and overall sales. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) will cut the load time of assets between 20-50%, especially for users outside of the United States which amounts to an improved customer experience. By speeding up CDNs, with geographically distributed servers, you can help deliver the fastest possible download for all users. In the past, CDNs were cost prohibitive and mostly reserved for sizable organizations who could afford to pay thousands of dollars per month. Recently, there has been an overall shift in CDNs that even the lowest traffic web sites can afford.

1. How a CDN Can Help Speed
Up Your Website
#drupalCDN

2. #drupalCDN
Andrew M Riley
Director of Drupal Development
@AndrewMRiley

3. Agenda #drupalCDN
Why you The CDN
Using a CDN Example
should Module

4. Goal #drupalCDN
At the end of this presentation you will:
1. Understand why you and your clients should use a
content delivery network
2. Be able to set up a CDN for your Drupal site.

5. #drupalCDN
Why you The CDN
Using a CDN Example
should Module

6. Anatomy of a Request #drupalCDN
Client Client/Server Client Server Transfer
1. DNS Lookup 2. Connect 3. Send 4. Wait 5. Load
More Info: http://j.mp/QSQQNR

7. What is a CDN? #drupalCDN
One vs Many

8. CDN History #drupalCDN
 Around for over 15 years
 Few players at first
 Initially extremely expensive
 Initially focused on large file distribution
Photo Source: http://j.mp/NfLona

9. CDN Today #drupalCDN
 Many players in the game
 From Free to Expensive
 Covers video streaming, assets, etc
 Includes new technology like P2P

10. So Why? #drupalCDN
Client Client/Server Client Server Transfer
1. DNS Lookup 2. Connect 3. Send 4. Wait 5. Load

11. #drupalCDN
Why you The CDN
Example
should Module

12. Integration Methods #drupalCDN
CDN CDN
Origin Pull Push
Your Server Your Server

13. The right one? #drupalCDN
 Integration Method
 Analyze your traffic and correlate it with POPs
 Cost
 P2P Support
 Media types

14. Environments #drupalCDN
 Development - probably doesn’t need one
 Staging - should have one
 Production - of course!

15. Common Pitfalls #drupalCDN
 Multi-Environment Conflict
 File same name
 Invalidating Objects
 Command Propagation/Lag
 Stacking CDNs
Photo Source: http://j.mp/PrYuCh

16. Browser Testing #drupalCDN
Client Client/Server Client Server Transfer
1. DNS Lookup 2. Connect 3. Send 4. Wait 5. Load

17. Service/Remote Testing #drupalCDN
 Both Free and Pay options
 Use this for load time testing
 Remote Desktop tends to give you more options

18. #drupalCDN
Why you
Using a CDN Example
should
http://drupal.org/project/cdn

19. Origin Pull #drupalCDN
 Easiest Method
CDN
 Pulls from your server on first load
 Can sometimes have SEO implications
Your Server

20. File Conveyor #drupalCDN
 aka Push
CDN
 Should work with *any CDN
 Allows for file pre-processing
 Requires system access for daemon
 Doesn’t have to come from your server
Your Server

21. Excluding Paths #drupalCDN
 You don’t want to CDN everything
 Avoid JS and Fonts (CORS IE < 8)
 Exclude custom generated images/data
 Module authors: hook_cdn_blacklist() and
hook_cdn_blacklist_alter()

22. Far Future Expiration #drupalCDN
 Will change some URLs
 Has special requirements
 Speeds up loading for return visitors (http://j.mp/PNz6Z3)

23. DNS Prefetching #drupalCDN
 Speeds up the initial HTTP request
 Adds a link tag to your pages
Client Client/Server Client Server Transfer
1. DNS Lookup 2. Connect 3. Send 4. Wait 5. Load

24. SEO Issues #drupalCDN
 If using origin, map your Canonical URL
 Update your robots.txt

25. #drupalCDN
Why you The CDN
Using a CDN
should Module

26. Log In #drupalCDN

27. Create Bucket #drupalCDN

28. Create Bucket #drupalCDN

29. Create Bucket #drupalCDN

30. Create Bucket #drupalCDN

31. Create Bucket #drupalCDN
(Click the info icon for your bucket)

32. Setup Drupal Module #drupalCDN

33. Test Your CDN #drupalCDN
 Log out of your site
 Load up the network view
 Reload your page
 Check CSS and other assets
 Check for breaks too!
Photo Source: http://j.mp/SfWrmQ

34. Summary #drupalCDN
 CDNs can fit all site sizes
 They’ll reduce server load
 They’ll reduce load time
 Cost isn’t really a factor any longer
Photo Source: http://j.mp/RccQYb

35. #drupalCDN

36. Mediacurrent helps organizations architect custom websites by
leveraging our proven processes and deep expertise in Drupal.
@mediacurrent mediacurrent.com