Is the CDN and Cloud computing are same? If both are different, how they differ? I have googled it, when someone asked me this question. But i could not able to get any clear idea on this. So can anyone explain about this, which would be greatly useful to lot of people.
And also please explain where the CDN will be used and where the cloud will be used?
Answer
CDN is simply a network of servers that replicate your binary files so that they are served from geographically close locations. CDN has been around for a lot longer than cloud computing as you know it today.
Not every cloud provider is a CDN, and not every CDN is a cloud computing provider.
Cloud computing is simply - dividing up a large computing resource (usually processing power) into little chunks which you can use remotely.
CDN is simply - a bunch of "disks" that are spread across the world in different datacenters. You upload your file to one of these disks - and then tell it where your customers are coming from. It will then copy the same file to other disks that are nearer to your customers; giving your visitors a faster experience. This collection of disks is called the content delivery network.
One of the biggest names in CDN is Akamai.