Shielding Service

In order to improve the performance of their web site, many companies utilize CDN services. Use of a CDN reduces the load on the origin server, improves performance and speed of object delivery, and increases reliability. Due to the nature of their origin web server or volume of files that are cacheable, many companies require greater protection than the level offered by a standard CDN service. To address these unique needs, Panther created our Shielding Service.

Overview

By definition, when users make a request to a cache that does not have the object, the cache makes an HTTP request back to the origin web server. By using the Shielding Service, this request is directed to the Shield POP first, rather than going directly to the origin web server.

Shielding provides the following benefits for companies, particularly for those with a lighter origin infrastructure, or a large number of files to cache (known as a large working set or LWS):

• Greater reduction of load on origin server (higher cache hit ratio at the Shielding Server) – eliminates the need for capital investment in larger origin servers
• Performance improvements on cache miss if origin is not performing optimally
• Performance improvements on cache miss as Shield caches have a proportionately large amount of bandwidth provisioned and are usually closer to POPs than the origin
• Redundancy as objects are in cache and will be delivered, even if the origin is down