HTTP/2 : Checklist For CDN & PaaS Performance

Previously, we talked about the basic knowhow around HTTP/2 optimization. When Are Using CDN Service, CDN Terminates the Connection Geographically Closer to the User and Thus Increasing the Chance to Reduce the TCP and TLS Handshake Cost. Not All CDNs are Optimized For HTTPS & HTTP/2. After reading this brief guide on HTTP/2 Checklist For CDN & PaaS Performance, we expect that the reader will be able to pick the right CDN or check the present features of current CDN.

How HTTP/2 and CDN, IaaS & PaaS Are Related to Performance

All of us use CDN to offload the static content at minimum. Some website uses whole website caching service. There are web services which offer (and expected to become common in future) ready to use PaaS and IaaS instances with custom domain name and Let’s Encrypt certificate. PaaS essentially is for the developers, if the backend is not up to date to support the latest technologies, basic Nginx Configuration will need to be adjusted on deployment main server.

TLS exposes many new configuration options on every server. We are listing only the performance oriented features.

HTTP/2 : Checklist For CDN & PaaS Performance

We need to check ny CDN or PaaS (or ready to use PaaS) for :

1. HTTP/2
2. HSTS
3. Session identifiers
4. Session tickets
5. OCSP stapling
6. Dynamic record sizing
7. ALPN
8. Forward secrecy

We will suggest to use custom subdomain of the domain, force own rules. These are the common CDNs :

1. CloudFlare supports all the features.
2. KeyCDN supports all the features.
3. Fastly supports all the features.
4. Akamai does not support OCSP Stapling.
5. Amazon CloudFront practically supports very less features.
6. MaxCDN does not support dynamic record sizing.

As we can see, using KeyCDN or Fastly or CloudFlare is practical now. Quality of implementation also matters. So, you must be checking that subdomain with tests like SSL Labs for grading. Ideally you should get the features closest to your own server’s feature set.