4.10 Use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) appropriately
Hosting, Infrastructure, and Systems
Use CDNs where they bring a sustainability benefit, ensuring the provider itself is sustainable, has nodes local to an audience, and they are only used to serve static resources on them.
Criteria
- Global CDNs: Machine-testable
Deploy static content, assets, and other read-only resources via a Content Delivery Network (CDN) on a case-by-case basis, where judged to be beneficial. Carefully evaluate the environmental impact of any CDN service used, similar to a web hosting provider.- Caching on a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
- Carbon accounting in the Cloud (PDF)
- CDN Compare
- Cloud Carbon Footprint
- Cloud Computing, Server Utilization, & the Environment
- Data center emissions probably 662% higher than big tech claims. Can it keep up the ruse?
- Energy Consumption in Data Centres and Broadband Communication Networks in the EU
- Energy-efficient Cloud Computing Technologies and Policies for an Eco-friendly Cloud Market
- Future trends of Green All Optical Networks and ICT Infrastructure in a large context
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 2.3 – Specifications (Connection Issues)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 6.2 – Front-End (Caching Mechanisms)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 6.7 – Front-End (Server Host)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 7.1 – Back-End (Reusability Caching)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 8.1 – Hosting (Hosting Provider)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 8.5 – Hosting (Renewable Documentation)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 8.6 – Hosting (Local Datacenters)
- GR491 – 1-8003 – Datacenter Location
- GR491 – 1-8014 – Power Usage Effectivness
- GR491 – 1-8016 – Water Usage Effectivness
- GR491 – 1-8013 – Server Power Efficiency
- GR491 – 1-8017 – Datacenter Best Practices
- GR491 – 2-8020 – Datacenter Hub
- GR491 – 3-8026 – Power Off When Not In Use
- GR491 – 3-8027 – Physical VS Virtual
- GR491 – 3-8028 – Memory Usage
- GR491 – 3-8029 – CPU Usage
- GR491 – 3-8030 – Technical Choice Optimization
- GR491 – 3-8031 – Unused CPU Cores
- GR491 – 4-8040 – Certified Equipment
- GR491 – 4-8041 – Energy Use Information
- GR491 – 4-8042 – Customer Transparency
- GR491 – 5-8053 – Efficiency Measurements
- GR491 – 6-8063 – Datacenter Certification
- Green Data Streams
- Greenhouse Gas Protocol – Cloud & Data Center Services (PDF)
- High Performance MySQL: Query Performance Optimization
- How Clean is Your Cloud? (PDF)
- How much water do data centres use?
- How using a CDN is better for people and the planet
- Idle Power Matters
- Investigating the Inconsistencies among Energy and Energy Intensity Estimates of the Internet
- Is My Host Fast Yet?
- LocalCDN
- Measuring the Emissions & Energy Footprint of the ICT Sector (PDF)
- Microsoft Emissions Impact Dashboard
- Power and Energy Efficiency
- Public CDNs Are Useless and Dangerous
- Reporting requirements on the energy performance and sustainability of data centres for the Energy Efficiency Directive
- Requirements for Energy Efficiency Management
- The Hosting Server Location & What It Means For Website SEO
- The staggering ecological impacts of computation and the cloud
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 3 – Health & Well-being
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 6 – Water & Sanitation
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 7 – Sustainable Energy
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 9 – Infrastructure
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 12 – Consumption & Production
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 13 – Climate Change
- Use Cases for Energy Efficiency Management
- What is a Content Delivery Network – A Beginner’s Guide
- Sustainability commitment: Machine-testable
Select CDN providers that make commitments to sustainability and report on their progress.- Akaimi ESG Sustainability
- Carbon accounting in the Cloud (PDF)
- Cloudflare Impact Report
- Fastly ESG 2023 Report (PDF)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 8.5 – Hosting (Renewable Documentation)
- Grasping Green CDN Regulatory Compliance & Environmental Responsibility
- How CDNs Make Websites Faster and Greener
- Local servers: Machine-testable
When serving an exclusively local audience, consider whether a CDN is required at all. Instead, select hosting providers with servers close to your target audience.- AWS WAF – SUS01-BP01 – Choose Region based on both business requirements and sustainability goals
- AWS WAF – SUS02-BP04 – Optimize geographic placement of workloads based on their networking requirements
- Consume Local: Towards Carbon Free Content Delivery (PDF)
- Edge computing
- Electricity Maps
- Geographical Server Relocation: Opportunities and Challenges (PDF)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 2.3 – Specifications (Connection Issues)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 6.2 – Front-End (Caching Mechanisms)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 6.7 – Front-End (Server Host)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 7.1 – Back-End (Reusability Caching)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 8.1 – Hosting (Hosting Provider)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 8.5 – Hosting (Renewable Documentation)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 8.6 – Hosting (Local Datacenters)
- GR491 – 1-8003 – Datacenter Location
- GR491 – 2-8020 – Datacenter Hub
- Internet Exchange Map
- Is my host fast yet?
- Microsoft Azure WAF – Deploy to low-carbon regions
- Submarine Cable Map
- Towards Game-Theoretic Approaches to Attributing Carbon in Cloud Data Centers (PDF)
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 3 – Health & Well-being
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 6 – Water & Sanitation
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 7 – Sustainable Energy
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 9 – Infrastructure
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 12 – Consumption & Production
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 13 – Climate Change
- Inappropriate resources: Machine-testable
Avoid deploying dynamic or frequently changing resources to a CDN. Browser behaviors such as cache partitioning and cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) can limit performance gains, hinder caching and interaction, and attempting to override these can introduce security or privacy risks. This does not apply to static assets or JSON files, which are well suited to CDN delivery.- Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)
- Double-keyed Caching: How Browser Cache Partitioning Changed the Web
- Gaining security and privacy by partitioning the cache
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 6.2 – Front-End (Caching Mechanisms)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 7.1 – Back-End (Reusability Caching)
- Subresource Integrity
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 7 – Sustainable Energy
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 9 – Infrastructure
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 13 – Climate Change
- Close to the source: Human-testable
Perform data transformations, transfers, and processing between the layers of an application as close to the source as possible. This reduces unnecessary serialization overhead and avoids wasting resources.- 3 Strategies for Achieving Data Efficiency in Modern Organizations
- Carbon Aware Computing
- Carbon Aware Computing: Next Green Breakthrough or New Greenwashing?
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 2.3 – Specifications (Connection Issues)
- GPF – General Policy Framework (PDF) – 6.2 – Front-End (Caching Mechanisms)
- Minimize data transfer
- The Cost of Serialization
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 7 – Sustainable Energy
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 9 – Infrastructure
- United Nations SDGS – Goal 13 – Climate Change
Benefits
- Economic
Using a CDN may save money because their data transfer rates are often cheaper than hosting providers. - Environment
Using a CDN to host content closer to users lowers network-related carbon emissions while also reducing user device energy use because they can load content more quickly. - Performance
Using a CDN to locate content closer to users gives them faster access to content.
GRI
- Materials: Low
- Energy: Medium
- Water: Low
- Emissions: Medium