Does the number of PoPs matter for CDN quality?

 Users choose CDN (Content Delivery Network) basing on different factors including the number of PoPs (points of presence). Though this aspect is crucial, it is not the most important thing about CDNs. Find out why proximity of PoPs is of more importance than their number.

Some companies think that the more PoPs they have at their disposal, the better. However, excessive amount of PoPs may have negative impact on content delivery, especially, when servers are placed in wrong locations.

When more PoPs is better?

Points of presence have several functions:

- They make content geographically closer to the visitors.

- They balance loading over edge servers and offload the origin server.

- They ensure 100% redundancy.

A huge number of PoPs is important for companies with worldwide coverage and audience spread over the globe. Thanks to them, a company may store a lot of resource-hungry content and deliver it without problems. Besides, if a company want to expand its presence in several regions, it will definitely benefit from extra PoPs in its CDN network.

When the number of PoPs does not matter?

If CDN network is too large and too robust for your demands, turns out you overpay for unnecessary resources and facilities. What really matters is not the number of PoPs, but their relevance for your audience. You should take into consideration where PoPs are located relatively to your visitors.

When comparing CDN solutions, you should consider the location of PoPs and their density. It means that if your target audience is located in India and China, PoPs should be concentrated in Asia, not other regions. A correctly chosen CDN will totally pay off, because you have an infrastructure that works for your exact business.

Static content vs Dynamic content

Although most companies need delivery of static contents (images, scripts, regularly video files), there is a minor number of PoPs created especially for delivering dynamic content, and some enterprises want this kind of solution. The problem is that dynamic content is hard to cache, and most often has to be transferred directly from the origin server. Thus, companies that focus on delivery of dynamic content should opt for higher quality of the origin server – CDN with usual PoPs won’t be of much use.

Original: https://www.jodihost.com/blog/news/is-the-number-of-pops-in-cdn-is-so-important/