Switching a CDN Service Provider
For some reasons, websites may want to stop taking service from the CDN provider and work with another one.
Hence, the customers who are not satisfied with the service they take but want to continue make use of the productivity of CDN service may have probably these two questions in their minds: “Can we transfer our website’s content to another company?” and “What should be done for this transfer?”.
Can I switch the CDN provider?
Websites may want to stop receiving CDN service because of the bad user experience or insufficient customer services. Companies can switch to another CDN service without interruption after they stop receiving service.
There are some basic configurations to be done for switching from one to another. This process starts with cutting the previous service and continues with making new configurations by site administrators for the new service.
Before the full transfer, the new CDN service provider should be tested. In this way, you can examine the potential problems or different situations that may occur beforehand.
If you want to test your CDN service before switching into new one, you can start using Merlin CDN with 10$ free credit.
What I need to do for switching my CDN provider?
The configurations to complete the transfer between CDN providers are generally carried out by the experts who deal with infrastructure of that website. Maintaining configurations on the previous panel by the experts of that CDN service can be useful to perform the activities more quickly.
Even if it is different for each company, configurations to be done for switching from one CDN service to another can be listed with some points.
Validate the configuration
The first transaction should be done for the transfer is using a trial of the new CDN service. Even if both services have activities on CDN, their configurations can be different.
Activities can be generally defined as stop using a CDN service and transferring to another one. In this process, you can start to configure your website in accordance with the requirements by arranging its previous configurations (pricing zones, restrictions, etc.).
On the other hand, essential configurations need to be done on the new management panel for the caching settings of static and dynamic contents. For this reason, you need to update your hosting settings in the transfer process.
Another important point is the services which are automatically served by the previous CDN provider and by the new CDN provider to its customers. You need to compare the configurations of these two companies and update them in accordance with the requirements.
Change the web code in transfer process
CDN service providers have different DNS redirection procedures. If DNS redirection is made on the previous provider, you need to update the configurations after transfer process.
Some companies prefer to redirect DNS in itself, so you should check these configurations after transfer process.
Do not forget to check your SSL Certificate
If you have an SSL certificate already, you can continue to use it by adding on the management panel of new CDN provider.
On the other hand, if you don’t have an SSL certificate, you can get a free SSL certificate on Merlin CDN management panel.
Simultaneous control for both providers before transfer
Before the transfer process, it would be useful to examine whether the operations are carried out as required. Therefore your can response and find a solution quickly to the potential problems.
You can start using Merlin CDN with 10$ free credit.
Decrease DNS TTL Value in Origin Hostname
Before the transfer process, DNS TTL value should be diminished into a couple of minutes to make a smooth configuration easily.
Prepare your Origin Server for high traffic
Since the new CDN provider starts to cache your contents, there can be high traffic on your origin server. For this reason, you need to check your origin server against unexpected situations.
Update CNAME Redirections on DNS Panel
You need to change the previous DNS CNAMEs with server names of the new CDN service. In this way, requests will be redirected to the new CDN servers.
Check the traffic of your previous CDN
Even if you switch into new CDN service, you need to monitor and check the traffic of previous CDN. Because it should be observed that the traffic on the previous CDN account decreases over time and eventually drops to 0.
If you come across with the opposite, you need to find a solution to the problem quickly.
You can learn more about CDN from the articles that is called "Benefits of CDN".