The CDN industry is moving quickly, with major providers such as Akamai and Cloudflare consolidating their positions. For businesses caught in that movement, changing CDN providers is rarely a simple swap. Your CDN sits in front of your website or application, so migration decisions touch performance, security, routing, caching, and operational risk.
Market Shifts in the CDN Industry
The CDN market is being reshaped by large providers and newer entrants. Akamai's acquisition of Linode is one example, expanding its cloud services and strengthening its position beyond CDN. Cloudflare is moving in a similar direction, adding cloud-based services around its CDN platform.
Akamai's Strategic Moves
Akamai has recently bought customer contracts from both Lumen and StackPath. This is likely to lift its 2024 revenue by tens of millions of dollars. The transferred customers will also benefit from Akamai’s wider cloud and security services.
Azure CDN Standard from Akamai, StackPath CDN, and Lumen CDN are all going offline soon. Clients have received only 2-3 months' notice to migrate, which is a tight window for a service that usually has routing, security, caching, and origin dependencies. Vendors should avoid putting customers in this position. A multi-CDN strategy can reduce that exposure.
What Happened to Section.io?
Section.io, once a CDN, shifted to edge computing before being sold to Webscale. That leaves approximately 300 Australian websites looking for new service providers. If you are one of them, now is the time to act.
These moves make the decision to switch or stay with a CDN provider more complex, especially for smaller businesses that need flexible and reliable local alternatives such as Peakhour. Switching your CDN is not as straightforward as changing a DNS record. Your CDN acts as the gateway to your website or application, so a move can involve reconfiguring a large part of the delivery stack.
Why Peakhour Is the Right Choice
Peakhour is a local, reliable alternative in an industry changing quickly. We offer the flexibility needed for customisation and a full suite of services.
If you are considering a CDN switch, treat it as a technical migration rather than a procurement task. Peakhour can help make that transition smoother.
Peakhour's Top 10 Things to Consider When Changing Providers
Switching CDNs? Work through these ten factors before you move:
-
Caching Rules: Use the migration to review and optimise your caching settings.
-
POP Distribution: Understand how the new CDN's points of presence may affect your traffic.
-
Security Gaps: Evaluate how the new CDN's security measures compare to your current provider.
-
Access Lists: Make sure IP whitelists and blacklists are carried over cleanly.
-
Origin Security: Update IP addresses to ensure your origin server recognises the new CDN.
-
SSL/TLS Certificates: Confirm the new CDN supports your existing SSL/TLS settings and can carry over the certificates you need.
-
API Compatibility: Ensure the new CDN offers APIs that match or exceed your current usage.
-
Analytics and Monitoring: Assess if the new CDN's analytics tools meet your needs.
-
Rate Limiting: Review the new CDN's rate limiting options, especially if your site experiences traffic bursts.
-
Costs: Account for migration work, potential downtime, and any hidden fees.
Additional Considerations for a Seamless Transition
Beyond the top ten, also consider:
-
Bot Protection: Evaluate how the new CDN manages automated traffic.
-
User Agent Validation: Make sure the new CDN effectively screens search engine bots.
-
IP Reputation Lists: Know how your new CDN updates and uses IP reputation lists.
-
API Protection: Confirm that the new CDN provides strong API security controls.
-
Dynamic Page Caching: Check how the new CDN handles caching for dynamic content.
-
Query String Handling: Understand how your new CDN treats query strings, as this can affect cache performance after migration.
Special Concerns for E-commerce Sites
For e-commerce, also think about:
-
Site Integrations: Does the new CDN support plugins for your platform, such as Magento?
-
Custom WAF Rules and Exceptions: Ensure these can be moved to the new CDN.
-
Image Optimisation: Update Image APIs if your CDN handles image transformations.
Advanced Configurations
Advanced setups need closer review:
-
Origin Mounting: Confirm your multiple origins will work as needed with the new CDN.
-
Request Routing: Make sure you can replicate your existing routing configurations with the new provider.
-
Edge Redirects: Ensure the new CDN can handle any redirects you’ve configured at the edge.
