Finding the right CDN for our startup • Hacker News Board

Re: Finding the right CDN for our startup

#31

Post by jread » Wed, Nov 06, 2013, 2:27 PM UTC

I created a browser based test a few years ago that captures CDN latency from real users and correlates the results regionally using MaxMind (http://cloudharmony.com/speedtest). CDNs set themselves apart outside of the US where infrastructure is more complex and costs are higher. I posted a spreadsheet that provides a breakdown on CDN latency globally based on this testing (tens of thousands of tests from thousands of ISPs):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al_R0WNcU3q9dGV...

Re: Finding the right CDN for our startup

#32

Post by tlarkworthy » Wed, Nov 06, 2013, 2:28 PM UTC

timothy89 wrote: post #24

babuskov wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this. You have so much traffic that you need CloudFront, but cannot earn enough to spare $600/mo? What kind of startup is it? From what I could tell talking with some people so far, is that they only think they need CDN, while a couple of regular dedicated servers would be just fine. But, then again, most of my customers are in Europe so I can serve files cheaply. In US, I'm currently using FDCServ…

The reason we're using a CDN is not because of the traffic - that would be easily solved with an AWS server and a lightweight http server such as nginx. We decided to go with a CDN because of two reasons: 1) The website and web app should load fast all over the world. Not only in the US or Sweden (where we live). 2) We don't want to host or put any time into hosting or own website and static files. We rather pay a li…

1. premature optimization 2. you don't need a CDN to host stuff virtually (AWS, GAE, rackspace, Azure, linode etc.).

Re: Finding the right CDN for our startup

#33

Post by gabemart » Wed, Nov 06, 2013, 2:28 PM UTC

noelwelsh wrote: post #13

nwh wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All major browsers allow you to profile each load time of every single resource. Perfect for trying to compare relative latency at a particular location for a particular CDN. Chrome'a is especially good for this sort of thing, look at "network" in the developer tools.

Sure, I can test my latency, but I'm more interested in what my customers are experiencing. For instance, we have a big customer over in east Asia and I have very little idea what latency they get. When we were using Cloudfront a customer in Australia complained that they were seeing timeouts. It seems there was a bug in Amazon's routing table as Cloudfront has a POP in Sydney but their requests were going somewhere…

You could try a tool like http://cloudmonitor.ca.com/en/checkit.php

Re: Finding the right CDN for our startup

#34

Post by typerandom » Wed, Nov 06, 2013, 2:32 PM UTC

tlarkworthy wrote: post #32

timothy89 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason we're using a CDN is not because of the traffic - that would be easily solved with an AWS server and a lightweight http server such as nginx. We decided to go with a CDN because of two reasons: 1) The website and web app should load fast all over the world. Not only in the US or Sweden (where we live). 2) We don't want to host or put any time into hosting or own website and static files. We rather pay a li…

1. premature optimization 2. you don't need a CDN to host stuff virtually (AWS, GAE, rackspace, Azure, linode etc.).

Premature optimization or not. We care about the experience and want it to be as good as possible. /R

Re: Finding the right CDN for our startup

#35

Post by anderspetersson » Wed, Nov 06, 2013, 2:43 PM UTC

typerandom wrote: post #4

anderspetersson wrote: post #3

I made the switch from Rackspace Cloudfiles + CDN to Amazon S3 + Cloudfront a couple months ago. I was regularly getting emails about my app erroring when someone uploaded a file via my app to Rackspace, since Rackspace was down (or responding slowly). Now I'm happy with Amazon S3 + Cloudfront, it's cheaper and more stable.

I wish we could use CloudFront. Unfortunately they charge a bit for custom SSL ($600/zone/mo). Not that fun for a startup. Are you also using that? /R

Negative, I don't use a custom SSL.

Re: Finding the right CDN for our startup

#36

Post by twistedpair » Wed, Nov 06, 2013, 2:46 PM UTC

kalleboo wrote: post #28

Are the high SSL costs because they need a dedicated IP per domain at each of their POPs? Would it be possible for them to offer an SNI-only SSL option for far cheaper if you know beforehand who your clients are (say, if you're hosting content for an iOS app)?

CloudFront is the same, $600/mo/cert. They claim it is not so much the cert as the need for a dedicated IPv4 address at each edge node (45 edges and counting), and the paucity of addresses left in said pool.

CloudFront has been asking a lot about a hypothetical SNI only offering in their user surveys lately, so that is likely the route they'll pursue shortly for far cheaper SSL options.

Re: Finding the right CDN for our startup

#37

Post by asb » Wed, Nov 06, 2013, 2:51 PM UTC

randomhunt wrote: post #23

asb wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean CloudFlare rather than CloudFront?

Perhaps re: HN, and if so I apologise for confusion, but for Ninite it's CouldFront (d3doxs0mwx271h.cloudfront.net). I spent a short while investigating if there was an easy way to get it working but ended up just giving up on the site.

Yes, the recent HN change is to introduce CloudFlare.

Re: Finding the right CDN for our startup

#38

Post by twistedpair » Wed, Nov 06, 2013, 2:56 PM UTC

cmer wrote: post #11

We switched from Cloudfront to Fastly and couldn't be happier. These guys are awesome and the product is top notch. I highly recommend Fastly. We weren't too impressed with Cloudfront. The performance was all over the place and they provide no insight for cache hits/misses.

On price Fastly has copied every CloudFront price to the cent. I seems they differentiate on statistics and rapid purging (their purported competitive edge). However, for most any application, with proper version naming of resources, purges should not be an issue, unless you've got hard coded references to those resources.

Re: Finding the right CDN for our startup

#39

Post by asb » Wed, Nov 06, 2013, 2:59 PM UTC

twistedpair wrote: post #38

cmer wrote: post #11

We switched from Cloudfront to Fastly and couldn't be happier. These guys are awesome and the product is top notch. I highly recommend Fastly. We weren't too impressed with Cloudfront. The performance was all over the place and they provide no insight for cache hits/misses.

On price Fastly has copied every CloudFront price to the cent. I seems they differentiate on statistics and rapid purging (their purported competitive edge). However, for most any application, with proper version naming of resources, purges should not be an issue, unless you've got hard coded references to those resources.

Though they have a $50 minimum also (unlike CloudFront), presumably as customers spending less than that are too expensive to support.

Re: Finding the right CDN for our startup

#40

Post by latch » Wed, Nov 06, 2013, 3:11 PM UTC

tow21 wrote: post #22

Also worth looking at OVH: http://www.ovh.co.uk/cdn/ £8.99/month including SSL. (Note, I haven't actually tried it myself!)

I briefly tested OVH's CDN, it wasn't great.

First, you use rules (patterns) to set the TTL, rather than headers. Second, I just couldn't get the SSL working. I'd upload the certificate, it would say that it would show up shortly, but days later, nothing. Third, the routing seemed messed[1]. Their support normally isn't horrible, but it took weeks to get anyone to acknowledge the support request that I opened on this, even after escalating it.

[1] I know people like to point out that internet routing has nothing to do with geography. But I squarely refuse to believe that, Singapore users should get routed to France (they have a POP in Singapore, HK and Japan).