In our recent webinar, we explored how organizations can leverage intelligent Multi-CDN Steering to deliver faster, more reliable digital experiences while reducing costs and vendor lock-in. With user expectations higher than ever and the stakes of downtime or poor performance continuing to rise, having a sophisticated traffic management strategy isn’t just nice to have – it is essential.
As we have seen with recent high-profile outages affecting major CDN and cloud providers, even the most established infrastructure isn’t immune to disruption. The question isn’t whether incidents will happen, but how prepared you are to respond.
Implementing a resilient delivery model with multiple CDN providers sounds straightforward in theory, but the reality involves significant challenges:
Traditional routing falls short
Geography-based steering and weighted distribution don’t account for the dynamic nature of modern networks. A user in California one ISP will have a completely different experience connecting to the same CDN than someone on another ISP – yet traditional global load balancing treats them the same.
Synthetic monitoring misses the real story
As highlighted in the webinar, testing with synthetic monitors is like testing a self-driving car on a racetrack instead of rea-world roads. It can miss perceived performance degradations that real users experience.
Managing multiple vendors is complex
From finding feature parity between CDN providers to managing cost commitments across multiple vendors, the operational overhead can be substantial. Many network teams lack access to the right telemetry from their application teams to make informed decisions.
Multi-CDN Steering: A Smarter Approach
Multi-CDN Steering is a strategy that leverages DNS, and in some cases basic HTTP load balancing, to intelligently route requests across CDNs and origins based on real-world performance data. The key differentiator is the use of Real User Monitoring (RUM) data – actual performance benchmarks as perceived by users, broken down by geography and even specific networks (ASNs).
Pulsar: The Intelligence behind IBM NS1 Connect
The core technology behind IBM NS1 Connect’s intelligent routing, Pulsar, relies on four key components:
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Global measurements using RUM Data gathered from real users
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Configuration – defining routing policies, thresholds and fallback mechanisms using Filter Chains
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Routing - real-time steering decisions that adapt as conditions change
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Insights and reporting revealing how performance or outages influenced routing.
By combining these elements, organizations can create a more responsive, resilient and cost-efficient application delivery strategy.
Best Practices for Multi-CDN Success
This webinar included practical recommendations drawn from supporting large-scale production deployments:
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Always set up fallback mechanisms: layer static geo-routing, weights, synthetic monitors and health checks beneath your intelligent routing. When RUM data is sparse or unavailable, these fallbacks ensure continuity.
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Factor in cost optimization: when multiple CDNs are performing within acceptable thresholds, let cost considerations influence routing decisions.
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Enable EDNS Client Subnet (ECS): this allows you to leverage the actual client IP address for more accurate routing where supported.
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Adhere to standards: using standard protocols like HLS Content Steering makes client integrations easier to manage across platforms.
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Avoid vendor lock-in: keep your Multi-CDN platform independent from your CDN cloud providers to maintain a truly resilient architecture without creating new single points of failure.
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Automate everything possible: use APIs or infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform to manage changes programmatically. Large scale events rely on automation, though even the biggest deployments sometimes require fast, on-the-fly adjustments.
What we have learned from supporting some of the World’s Biggest Brands
Organizations using intelligent Multi-CDN steering at scale consistently report:
As the CDN landscape continues to evolve and user expectations rise, intelligent Multi-CDN steering has moved from competitive advantage to operational necessity. Whether you are managing streaming services, eCommerce platforms, financial applications or SaaS products, the ability to route traffic based on real user performance – not just geographic proximity or static weights – can mean the difference between seamless experiences and costly outages.
The modern internet is too dynamic, and too critical to business performance, for static or traditional traffic-management strategies. Recent global CDN disruptions demonstrated, even the largest providers can experience outages that ripple across industries. As highlighted in our recent blog on how NS1 Connect stayed online during a major CDN outage, organizations with independent intelligent routing were able to maintain uptime while others went dark.
If your team is evaluating or refining a Multi-CDN strategy, the insights from this webinar provide a practical roadmap for building a more adaptive and resilient architecture.
Watch the Webinar On-Demand
If you would like to explore your specific Multi-CDN use cases, you can also contact our team to discuss how NS1 Connect can help you design a more resilient and adaptive delivery architecture.
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