Origin vs CDN Edge

Posted Aug 15, 2026 · 4 views

Origin-only: every request travels the full distance to one server, and back. Distance is latency, and the origin carries every byte of load.

A CDN edge puts copies near the people asking. Most requests take a short hop to a nearby node; only a miss makes the long trip to the origin. Latency drops because the distance dropped, and the origin only sees the misses.

The cost is the usual cost of a cache: what sits at the edge can be out of date, so anything personalized or fast-changing needs a rule for how it gets invalidated.

This one needs no jargon at all — the animation is just travel time.