How to Optimize Website Content Delivery Using Whole-Site Acceleration

Component No. 7: SSL support

Any Website conducting secure transactions—either dynamic or static—must have whole-site acceleration that offers SSL support. As the IP address resolution of a server is done on the DNS level—when it is still unknown whether the content is HTTP or HTTPS—secure traffic cannot be diverted to another IP. Thus, both HTTP and HTTPS traffic must be handled in the same location as, in both cases, the host will resolve to the same IP address. Additionally, the CDN must be able to host and cache private or shared SSL certificates. No changes should be required to the Web architecture to integrate SSL transactions.

Component No. 8: Real-time reports

Since all of the site's traffic passes through the CDN, whole-site acceleration should deliver comprehensive, actionable data in real time. This level of visibility empowers content providers to evaluate and respond quickly to their content’s performance. At the same time, logs and historical data provide the visibility of short and long-term trends in Web traffic. An integrated reporting platform gives online businesses the control they need to monitor and adjust performance on a granular level.

Empowerment of online businesses

Whole-site acceleration is poised to be a real game changer for the CDN industry because it puts online businesses in control to a degree never before possible. Real-time, whole-site performance data delivers unprecedented visibility and relevant, actionable metrics. Since online transaction speed is inextricably linked to consumer conversion, whole-site acceleration delivers information that is essential to make informed business decisions.

David Drai is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Cotendo. David plays a key role in the creation and development of core technologies at Cotendo. He brings deep expertise to this position, as he is the holder of multiple patents in the areas of content management and network technologies development. David also has experience as the lead technologist for the integration and deployment of new technologies in business-critical customer environments. Prior to co-founding Cotendo, David spent over a decade at Commtouch Software as research and development director in networking programming. At Commtouch, David’s achievements included the design and development of the Commtouch Antispam Infrastructure as well as other real-time, software-based services. Other initiatives at Commtouch led by David included user interface development and integration support for large service providers and top customers. David earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. He can be reached at david.drai@cotendo.com.