Content Delivery Networks: Web Switching for Security, Availability, and Speed

by Scot Hull

Book Overview

Offers an introduction to the Content Networking market, and describes the players, the problems, and the solutions to the problems facing companies seeking to provide services via the Internet. This... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0072190469
• ISBN13: 9780072190465
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Useful, Readable, Great Resource

This book covers a broad scope of technologies and how they intertwine to make the internet work better. It gave me a new perspective of the ongoing development of the global infrastructure and pointed out problems with current delivery systems. I found the specific descriptions and comparisons of the leading products and how to configure them invaluable.

Want to know what is a Content Delivery Network? This is it!

Scott Hull and his colleagues/friends have provided an excellent resource for building, enhancing functionality, improving performance, and insuring security for Content Delivery Networks, paying special attention to SSL protocol; which I was most concerned with. It is by no means a technology primer on all the subjects we encounter in a Content Delivery Network. You should already be aware of some foundation technologies like, LAN Protocols, PKI, Firewall design concepts, Bridging concepts as it relates to Spanning Tree protocol, web client access mechanisms/browser security, etc., to insure thorough understanding; although Scott does provide a solid refresher on these subjects. The book is an easy read, and is a must have in your arsenal of technology guides if you are in the business of deploying these technologies, or developers who are looking to understand these technologies and provide solutions to their customers. Thanks Scott! Very timely.

Excellent coverage of content networking

As an IT manager, I can't say enough about this book. It covers all of the issues surrounding content networking in a clear an easy to read way. I especially found the SSL and caching chapters useful since I'm in the middle of deploying solutions for both problem areas. The SSL chapter clearly explains how the protocol works and explains how it relates to real-life issues in deploying SSL accelerators. I've also found this book useful to get my junior administrators up to speed with the technologies that they have to learn. Finding staff that is familiar with this stuff is hard but with a book like this, I can actually provide useful training material without having to develop anything of my own or spend a lot of time explaining the basics. I intend to buy copies for all of my staff.

Excellent Resource!

This book is a must have reference for anyone who wants to become versed in the ever so popular world of content delivery!! I found that the wording is very easy to understand, yet the concepts are indepth and concise! Overall an excellent book.

Content Delivery Networking

What it is:The title is interesting, as CDNs typically refer solely to caching solutions. However, this book takes a longer view, recognizing caching as merely a single element (and a largely irrelevant, if easily recognizable, element) in a more complete scheme designed to make networks more productive. Given that the Internet is the common element in all computer data networks seeking to provide services to Web clients, it might seem that there isn?t much that can be done to optimize the delivery performance to these clients. This is patently not so. CDNs (so-called ?overlay networks?) are a direct attempt to overcome these inherent limitations.Who its for:The book is targeted at a variety of people, and could be useful to IT managers looking to learn about the emerging field, engineers that have to build and maintain these networks, and vendors looking to refine their solutions. The discussion ranges from introductory to advanced, and the language is clear and easy to grasp.How it does it:The book is broken down informally into two sections, an underlying technology section, and an advanced/applied technology section.The first section covers some basic (and some not-so-basic) stuff on HTTP, Ethernet, SSL, and DNS. Each chapter is a brief and slanted intro into the technology, why it?s relevant to Content Networking, and some flora/fauna descriptions on where its found, what its used for. This sort of material is found elsewhere in more detail, and is included here for completeness and as a basic reference. Some of the material is hard to find (a discussion of Ethernet ?heartbeats? as differentiated from ?link state updates? is a great example), so that makes this review kind of unique. Some of the material is not so hard to find, and as such, tends not to dwell on details better covered elsewhere. As I said, it?s a review, and not exhaustive, but supplementary.One chapter that is particularly useful, and acts as a bit of a bridge, is the one on Internet Structure. This stuff is really hard to find. What is a Network Access Point (NAP)? Why is it important? What is a POP, and why should I care? What is the relationship between a Tier-1 ISP and one that isn?t? How is the Internet put together, and what has this got to do with Content Networking? Great stuff.It is the second section that is perhaps the heart of the book, and therefore is much more interesting. The topics covered here include Server Load Balancing, Global Load Balancing, using filters v. firewalls, redirection technologies, and bandwidth management. These techniques and technologies are all new (or relatively so), and build on existing technologies, making the first section suddenly more relevant. Finding this stuff elsewhere is a matter of diving into vendors? websites and puzzling out the truth from the sales-related propaganda included therein. In the book, the topics are laid out with examples of who?s doing what, how to use it and when to do so, and also provides some actual