What’s The Relationship Between CDN Content-as-a-service ?
What is the Content as a service?
The Content as a Service (CaaS) or Managed Content as a Service (MCaaS) is a cloud computing service model that utilizes providers delivering Content to the consumers via a web service or API under a subscription model. The Content is structured and managed in feeds.
Other applications and properties, which may be on an internal or external IP, can then utilize the Content that is stored in these feeds, according to their specific requirements.
Content can be anything. It can be a blog, article or a whitepaper that resides on specific web-pages; or it can also be the web page content itself.
Content as a service architecture
Let us understand how this cloud computing service model is so revolutionary in the field of tech!
It is useful to understand the way that Content has been managed, stored and utilized traditionally and how it has evolved over the times.
First, there were hardcoded HTML pages, where every piece of Content had to be static and needed to be put into the code which was then pushed to the live website server for public access.
It had its difficulties because it involved a lot of dependencies on the part of the developer to make any required changes to the text. Moreover, it had to be coded again for the mobile application; which created duplicity of effort. The next technology which revolutionized the way Content used to be stored as the CMS, which made it easier to set up websites and populate them with Content. The CaaS is the next generation of this technology which aims to revolutionize everything by making the Content completely user-centric, instead of having to fit into any profit template.
Now, you may be probably aware of how the HTML code differs from the CMS setup, but how does a CaaS change things from before?
Basically, in a CMS, the front-end or the presentation layer, which is generally the user-facing web-page, is tightly coupled to the back-end, where the Content is written and updated. There is no API service which exists between these two layers. Content that may be sitting behind silos, making it difficult and challenging for the organization to utilize it in multiple places/ systems.
A CaaS decouples the Content from the container. The Content is stored in a nebulous form, and from here, the Content can be distributed to any platform.
Therefore, it frees up the Content from the design, and developers can customize the front-end as they want, by including the API request to the CMS back-end. When a user loads a web page or blog, then the corresponding API service call will go to fetch the Content and render it for the user.
It separates the ‘presentation’ tier from the ‘back-end’. Hence, with RESTful APIs you can, deliver the same Content that serves your website to an iOS or Android app as well.
The CaaS service model is also known as the headless CMS approach. The Content can be produced to be completely user-centric, rather than created to fit into a specific mold. Then, it can be quickly and easily updated wherever it needs to be published.
Why is it a positive development?
Today content as a service or CaaS is a real buzzword. As a service model, it innovates the way that the existing CMS platform works, by decoupling the front-end from the back-end. The Content can be created and then stored within the CMS; from here the Content can be channeled to any platform via APIs; therefore developers can customize the entire front-end by themselves, without getting constrained by any of the restrictions.
As brands are increasingly moving omnichannel and providing consumers with an era of immersive interaction, which takes users beyond any single screen, it becomes essential to start thinking for multiple touchpoints that the user will have with your company. Now, Content will flow to the user in ways we may not have even discovered yet.
CaaS is a brilliant innovation that can help to ensure that the brand message will remain consistent across the different user touchpoints, on different devices and operating devices, with the least amount of rework or duplication.
It is also referred to as a headless CMS approach; this is Content as a service model in nutshell.
It also offers flexibility to these businesses to move their projects between the cloud and on-premise depending upon the individual case for optimization, offering businesses cost-savings and various other benefits.
Overall, these characteristics grant more freedom and flexibility to the content and developer team. With this added versatility, Content can become more scalable and independent from the presentation.
The role of CDN in Content as a service architecture?
A CDN becomes crucial to set up Content as a service architecture to function smoothly and seamlessly. A CDN caches the Content is strategically distributed multiple Points of Presence (POPs) across the globe, and thereby it helps reduce the Round Trip Time that it takes for request and response to get to the user. It thus accelerates the resolution of the API request and delivers the Content to the presentation layer faster.
Wrapping Up
A Content as a Service model delivers agility and performance required to make adequate use of the innovation. Hosting the Content centrally over the cloud, and then providing it to the users in applications as and when they need it. As a part of cloud computing service models, it opens up a world of opportunities, ensuring premium customer experiences. It ensures this by delivering Content in the right place, the right time and the proper form for all nuanced customer journeys and by eliminating the need for complex environments. How do brands and organizations lead in the digital future by managing Content that serves multiple functions for disparate audiences in a multi-device, multi-channel world?
Setting up and investing in a CDN service can equip the organization to succeed with the CaaS service model.
At Medianova, we provide global CDN solutions in streaming, encoding, caching, micro caching, hybrid CDN, and website acceleration to ensure that your website performance is as desired even under peak traffic conditions.
