Is CDN a reverse proxy like LB or API Gateway?

CDN 101: Powering a Faster Web Have you ever wondered why some websites load instantly—no matter where you are in the world? 🌍 That’s the magic of a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN is a globally distributed network of servers that stores and delivers web content closer to users. It reduces latency, speeds up load times, and adds layers of security and reliability to your system. 💡 Why it matters: Faster content delivery means better user experience. Cached content reduces server load and improves uptime. Built-in DDoS protection enhances overall system resilience. 🔧 Two main strategies: Pull Strategy: CDN fetches and caches content automatically. Push Strategy: Content is manually published to CDN for tighter control. In short — CDNs are the backbone of the modern web, ensuring speed, scalability, and security at a global scale. 🌐⚡ #CDN #WebPerformance #Architecture #CloudComputing #WebApps #Speed

Shipped a round of front-end performance improvements focused on Core Web Vitals and bundle efficiency. Results • LCP: 3.1s → 1.7s (P75, mobile) • CLS: 0.12 → 0.02 • TTI: 4.6s → 2.3s • INP now 120 ms (P75) Key changes • Code-split routes and heavy charts; deferred non-critical JS • Replaced Moment.js with date-fns; removed unused polyfills • Adopted CSS containment and content-visibility for long feeds • Image pipeline: WebP, lazy-loading, preload hero • Server hints + CDN caching; far-future cache with content hashes • React: memo, useCallback, virtualization for large lists Happy to compare approaches with teams working on similar optimizations.

Next.js 16 Beta don land. Turbopack’s now stable, caching got smarter, routing’s faster, basically, everything’s moving at 2× speed again. At this point, I might just update, test things out, and nod like, “yeah, makes sense.” But like, it’s wild how the web keeps leveling up this fast. Read the docs here https://lnkd.in/d4PDTsQN

REST isn’t just about using HTTP - it’s a full set of principles that only make sense together. A well-designed REST API: - is stateless - supports caching - uses the correct HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) - respects layered systems (e.g., load balancer, CDN) - provides a predictable interface It’s not about being overly strict - it’s about consistency and scalability. 📬 Want more API pro tips? Subscribe to our newsletter:  nextgenarchitecture.com #RESTAPI #SoftwareArchitecture #CleanDesign

Go makes it easy to build APIs that are super fast from the get-go. But as you get more users, Go's natural speed might not be enough - and you'll need to set up caching. In this guide, Temitope shows you four ways to cache Go API responses for high performance. https://lnkd.in/gec2F2jb

Every time someone visits your site, the data travels a long way, moving through many servers before it reaches the user. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) helps by cutting that distance short. A CDN keeps copies of your content in different places around the world. So when someone opens your site, they get the data from the closest server, not your main one, making everything load much faster. Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes: - Edge nodes: These are servers placed in many cities. They store things like images, CSS, and JavaScript close to users. This means pages open faster and your main server stays free for important work. - Cache invalidation: This decides when old files should be replaced with new ones. Without it, users might keep seeing outdated content after you make changes. - stale-while-revalidate: This smart trick lets users see the old version of a page right away while the CDN quietly updates it in the background. So everything feels fast and fresh. - Smart caching rules: Not everything should be stored the same way. Static files, APIs, and dynamic pages each need their own caching plan to stay up to date and consistent. When your CDN setup is well-planned, users get a faster, smoother experience, and your site stays strong even under heavy traffic. #CDN #Caching #PerformanceOptimization #WebArchitecture #FrontendPerformance #SystemDesign #ScalableSystems #DevOps #EdgeComputing #SoftwareEngineering #SoftwareHouse

Here is a funny story about how we recently DDoSed ourselves at Activepieces: Pieces (aka apps or integrations) are versioned and published on npm as packages. Users who self-host AP need to be updated about new versions and new pieces. We store all of the pieces' metadata in our database. We have an endpoint to sync this metadata, which our self-hosted instances use. Each self-hosted instance runs a sync job hourly. As we grew in popularity, this started to cause some of our instances to go down each hour due to the increase in the number of sync jobs (aka we were being DDoSed). We identified the problem by observing our OpenTelemetry traces. By the way, we use HyperDX (ClickStack) for OTEL and logs. It was fun for me to migrate from Grafana/Loki to it, but that's a story for another time. We solved this by making two optimizations: First, we finally implemented an optimization I had suggested a while ago when I found that our app servers' CPU usage was low. The optimization was to use PM2 to cluster Node.js, which runs a process per core. This allows Node.js to process four times the number of requests, as they are all network requests processed on the main thread. Second, I suggested we use a CDN since the data is mostly static. We used Cloudflare's Smart Tiered CDN to cache the endpoint, which worked perfectly as there's no problem serving metadata that is a couple of minutes stale. I have been working mainly in platform engineering for a while now, focusing on the scalabilty, reliability and observability of our infrastructure. I love it. #webscale #systemdesign #backend

Chasing sub-second TTFB and consistent global speed? Here’s how edge SSR + routing on Vercel/Netlify cuts latency, boosts Core Web Vitals, and keeps infra simple. → https://lnkd.in/euQbEr88 #CoreWebVitals #Performance #Vercel #Netlify #Edge

Excellent article that shows the difference between MCP vs API gateways. Yes, big differences and it's the future of interacting with applications.

🛜The Hidden Power of HTTP Caching Before you optimize code, always check your headers. A well tuned HTTP caching strategy can cut response times dramatically: 🔹 Cache Control and ETag reduce redundant requests 🔹 Smart invalidation keeps things fresh 🔹 Combined with a CDN, it’s a game changer 💡 Sometimes performance isn’t about the code, it’s about the network. 💬 How often do you audit your caching strategy? #WebPerformance #Caching #FrontendOptimization #WebDev #WebDeveloper