What is the purpose of a content delivery network (CDN)?

The purpose of a content delivery network (CDN) is fundamentally about enhancing the performance of delivering content over the internet. It achieves this by strategically distributing content across multiple servers located in various geographical areas. This distribution allows users to access content from the nearest server, which significantly speeds up loading times and reduces latency.

By reducing the distance that data must travel, a CDN minimizes the delays that can occur due to network congestion or long distances between the server and the user. This is particularly important for media content, such as videos or images, where performance can greatly affect user experience. Additionally, a CDN can help handle large spikes in traffic more effectively, ensuring reliability and accessibility to users even during peak times.

While other options touch on important aspects of data management, they do not capture the primary objective of a CDN, which is to optimize content delivery for speed and efficiency.