What is a CDN and why is it used?

A CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a distributed network of servers that delivers content from servers geographically close to users. Benefits: reduced latency (shorter distance), decreased origin server load, improved availability (distributed, redundant), DDoS protection, handling traffic spikes. CDNs cache static content (images, CSS, JS) at edge locations. Examples: Cloudflare, Akamai, CloudFront. Use for: static assets, video streaming, API acceleration.