Alibaba Cloud CDN Transformation and Innovation Practice Based on Cloud-Edge Collaboration

More than 20 years of technology, facing a breakthrough.

CDN (Content Delivery Network) is an ultra-large-scale distributed system that provides dynamic/static content, real-time streaming media acceleration, and network security protection for various Internet Apps and Web sites. Online shopping, live streaming, music, games, social networking, etc. are all inseparable from it, and its peak requests exceed 100 million times per second.

It can be said that this is a somatosensory technology for deep diving into the work and life of the public, which is equivalent to breathing.

The technology has been in existence for more than 20 years. With the accelerated popularization of new infrastructures such as 5G and cloud computing, scenarios with large bandwidth, low latency, and high concurrency continue to emerge, promoting the continuous increase of network traffic, making CDN business volume and usage scenarios. more proliferated.

Today, China's CDN development and transformation period, driving edge computing, distributed cloud computing, cloud gaming and other services, has become a more important mission of the technology in the new era.

Ten years of sharpening a sword, Alibaba Cloud CDN has fully entered the era of cloud-edge collaboration

Since 2014, Alibaba Cloud has officially provided commercial CDN services. As a global CDN service provider, Alibaba Cloud ranks third in the world in terms of market share in the report "2022 Global CDN Service Providers MarketScape Evaluation" released by the international authoritative organization IDC. important role.

Source: IDC "2022 Global CDN Service Provider MarketScape Evaluation Report"

Behind the excellence, Alibaba Cloud's infrastructure has been expanding rapidly: As of 2022, Alibaba Cloud has deployed more than 2,800 edge nodes around the world, with a bandwidth output capacity of 150Tbps across the entire network, carrying more than 1.5 million active acceleration domain names worldwide, and about 80 in China. % of the TOP100 websites/apps are using Alibaba Cloud CDN.

Alibaba Cloud CDN Infrastructure Global Layout

Over the past ten years, the scale of Alibaba Cloud's resource deployment has continued to grow, and it has continued to iterate since its commercialization in 2014. Its development process can be divided into the following three stages:

Key milestones in the development of Alibaba Cloud CDN

• Phase 1, from 0 to 1: Commercialization of Alibaba Cloud CDN in 2014. At this stage, the construction of CDN from 0 to 1 was completed, the T+S node architecture was launched, and many group businesses such as Taobao were gradually migrated to Alibaba Cloud CDN.
• Phase 2, global scale: DCDN will be released from 2018 to 2019 to build a global scale. As the traffic scale reaches 100 Tbps, the business gradually develops to a global scale. SCDN/DCDN products are launched to optimize the global network for enterprise-level applications, and begin to provide dynamic acceleration, TCP/UDP four-layer acceleration, and support WebSocket full-link transmission .
• Phase 3: Edge computing and edge security: In the past two years, with the emergence of problems such as peak traffic and low traffic quality, Alibaba Cloud CDN began to seek breakthrough changes, focusing on edge computing, edge security and other aspects to build a global security acceleration platform base , further develop edge infrastructure, and fully enter the era of cloud-edge collaboration.

A New Generation of Acceleration Engines Ultra-Highly Available Edge Security Acceleration Platform

In the past, edge clouds were extended from CDNs.
Now, CDNs are grown on edge clouds.

In the past, CDNs needed to be deployed on servers.
Now, CDN has been fully cloudized and can be quickly expanded for T+0 business switching.

In the past, the configuration of many basic items of CDN required the supplier to configure.
Now, automatic orchestration can be done through APIization.

All these changes are based on the three key capabilities of the CDN base: edge cloud network, cloud native, and DevOps.

Based on the three key capabilities of the base, Alibaba Cloud has repositioned the CDN in the new era of cloud-side collaboration, namely:

"Providing an ultra-highly available edge security acceleration platform for online businesses."

Committed to creating a new generation of acceleration engine, the engine has four core capabilities: one cloud multi-state, global network optimization, edge computing, edge security.

One cloud polymorphism

From the core point of view, Alibaba Cloud emphasizes one-cloud polymorphism, which is manifested in the fact that the new-generation edge security acceleration platform is based on its own flexible edge infrastructure and serverless capabilities. It can not only achieve on-demand conversion between static acceleration and dynamic acceleration, but also Deploy the video cloud in the edge cloud, do transcoding, and realize the perfect integration of traffic scheduling and computing power scheduling. This capability is also called CDN on ENS (Edge Node Service).

Global network optimization

For online data, Alibaba Cloud has achieved global deployment and extensive coverage of resources, helping customers access them nearby. At the same time, it supports traditional standard protocols and new-generation HTTP3 protocols, adapts to more application scenarios, and ensures stable and anti-fluctuation services.

edge computing

For cloud native computing scenarios, the edge deployment program is divided into two forms. The first is the serverless function computing form, and the second is the container form, which can be directly deployed to the CDN edge. In addition to the basic WAF, Ddos, BOT, and CC protection, Alibaba Cloud's CDN-based full-link content protection and protocol protection also has more "security+" capabilities.

Acceleration is still the core of CDN

"Although there are voices that CDNs need to make breakthroughs and do different things. But to this day, acceleration is still the core of CDNs."

CDN has carried more than 80% of the global content distribution traffic, providing users with the most cost-effective network acceleration solution.

To achieve 100% service for online data, the new content distribution network needs to position itself as an edge infrastructure for data outbound and distribution of data centers, improve distribution speed through computing, and support distribution business continuity through edge security.

Based on this positioning, Alibaba Cloud has built a CDN on top of the edge cloud network, and the network has new advantages and features.

First of all, it is based on the advantages of one-cloud and polymorphic networking.

Based on a wide range of node capabilities, Alibaba's edge cloud builds Alibaba Cloud's edge network, which realizes effective links between edge-center, edge-edge, and terminal-edge, and can support various upstream services.

In terms of the leading edge of network optimization technology, containerization can be used to quickly turn on and off, so that dozens of terabytes of business scenarios can be switched within a day, shielding complex network environments for upper-layer business applications, and providing high-quality and fast end-to-end network connections ability.

Second, it is a compliant network that provides globally compliant and trusted cloud services.

Alibaba Cloud CDN serves global customers. Whether domestic or overseas, infrastructure compliance and data compliance are the focus of customers. The edge cloud adopts the method of radiation from the center to the edge. It is a distributed cloud composed of large-scale geographically dispersed edge nodes that can be remotely managed and controlled, safe, reliable, standard and easy to use.

The third point is to build a CDN into a high-quality product through containerization technology.

CDN is a typical multi-tenant cloud platform service. Its disadvantage is that in the case of physical machine deployment, due to cache sharing and link sharing, it is difficult to achieve effective tenant isolation. Based on containerization technology, it can effectively isolate multiple tenants, perfectly solve the problems of elasticity and business crosstalk, provide more flexible resource allocation services, and ensure the SLA and availability of different industries and different customer services.

"On this layer of physical network facilities, what unique advantages does Alibaba Cloud have to solve the problems of global coverage and public network optimization? The answer is: a globally optimized application protocol network."

The initial CDN is a tree-like structure, with data going straight up and down and back to the source in layers. This kind of solidified logic is suitable for static content, but it is not flexible enough for dynamic content and dynamic and static content. Alibaba Cloud's structural transformation from a tree-like network to a mesh network helps businesses choose the optimal back-to-source path at any time.

Secondly, through self-developed application protocol network optimization, a new global optimized application protocol network is built on the traditional TCP/UDP protocol. Based on the internal protocol algorithm, a low-latency 0RTT transmission pipeline is provided in the process of closed-loop transmission.

On this basis, based on end-to-end, cloud-side bilateral protocol disaster recovery, the globally optimized application protocol network has reached 99.99% availability, and has the characteristics of anti-fluctuation, regional optimization, and cross-border optimization.

CDN is a passively accelerated service. The larger the service volume and the higher the QPS, the more it is necessary to ensure the heat and long connection of the edge cache.

The globally optimized application protocol network built by Alibaba Cloud, through mesh network and self-developed application protocol, perfectly solves the problems such as disconnection, excessive reconnection delay, and inability to cache due to too few requests. The transition from passive acceleration to active acceleration and full-scene support.

A new upgrade of the ubiquitous computing edge serverless platform

"Why do you say edge computing is for better acceleration?"

Taking EdgeRoutine, the first edge function computing engine released in 2021, as an example, in addition to considering acceleration at the beginning of the design, it also hopes to make full use of edge computing power, increase the edge reuse rate, and ultimately reduce energy consumption. This year, Alibaba Cloud has upgraded EdgeRoutine again, adding the edge storage product EdgeKV for the first time, allowing developers to persistently store the data calculated by edge programs on the edge, reducing requests to and from the data center, and further improving the computing efficiency of the edge .

At the same time, EdgeRoutine has supported the execution of WASM format files, which means that developers can use more WASM ecological development languages such as C, C++, Rust and other development languages to develop edge programs not only limited to the past JavaScript, making the threshold for edge access greatly reduce.

In addition, the beta version of the edge program has begun public testing and deployment of container images. Developers can directly package and smoothly deploy existing online services to the edge, further reducing deployment and transformation costs, and greatly improving the convenience of deployment.

Furthermore, Alibaba Cloud has removed the 2MB code size limit for edge programs, giving developers more space to execute more complex codes. These adjustments are well received by developers and users.

With the new upgrade of platform capabilities, the scale of the platform has grown rapidly. In particular, the daily global call volume of the edge computing platform has exceeded 100 billion times (the scale was 10 billion times last year). In addition, the startup speed of edge computing is further accelerated, enabling the deployment of 6000+ Pod images in seconds.

Last year's Double Eleven, Taobao's core business used the edge program EdgeRoutine. After experiencing the peak of ultra-high QPS concurrency, the capabilities of the entire program have become more mature. For users, they can experience the silky smoothness of opening Ali-based applications, which is the value brought by edge computing.

The new native protection allows defense to follow "data"!

The centralized protection capability system is very sound and complete, but there are still limitations after the data goes out. In the process of data going out to the client, it may still be hijacked, tampered, and difficult to control. At this time, edge security capabilities are required. .

"From defense in the center, to "defense follows data"."

In response to the weak point of protection level and system at the edge and the coexistence of security and acceleration, Alibaba Cloud CDN edge basic security system has been comprehensively upgraded to achieve comprehensive cloud-native security, using the same carrier as CDN acceleration and computing. , achieve complete integration, and ensure the security protection of the entire link in the process of business center expansion to edge deployment.

• Distributed defense: Build a strong edge protection barrier to prevent large-scale attacks from penetrating into the cloud center, keeping data assets away from risks, and "the engine does not stop";
• Grid sealing and control: Through the grid management of more than 2,800 nodes around the world, it can effectively "block" attacks such as CC, BOT, Ddos, etc., to prevent risk spillage;
• Near "source" protection: protect the data "source" closely and suppress the attack "source" nearby. In addition to conventional defense, it relies on DCDN's powerful global traffic management capabilities to support high-level data security protection such as encrypted transmission, anti-hijacking, and HTTP3.

Basic security plus end-to-end security on the CDN side makes users feel at ease when going to the cloud and also on the edge cloud. This is the ultimate goal of Alibaba Cloud to build edge security.

One-stop solution to leave "simple" to customers

The development of Alibaba Cloud's CDN to today's integration stage is actually an extremely complicated process, but this complexity cannot be passed on to customers.

"Simplify complex processes and use one-stop solutions, leaving "simple" to users."

All-in-one deployment

First of all, Alibaba Cloud CDN advocates integrated deployment and integrated billing. One product addresses acceleration, computing, and security needs and provides customers with a one-stop solution; integrated billing simplifies the purchase process and is more in line with the payment habits of industry customers.

Secondly, the evolution from single-center to multi-center to multi-cloud means that the underlying deployment architecture is complex, and it is difficult to rely on the security protection of the central cloud on such a complex architecture. The edge cloud can just solve the problem of detours and increase the delay. Through integrated deployment, it can effectively protect the security of multi-cloud data assets, and provide lower delay, lower failure rate, and better compatibility with a simpler cloud-edge architecture. and operability.

Finally, in terms of adaptability to a wide range of scenarios, Alibaba Cloud's CDN supports any type of Internet traffic, enhanced cloud-side-device collaboration and IoT scenario adaptation, providing real-time sensory experience, and making online business the fastest and safest , the most stable state.

DevOps

At the DevOps level, Alibaba Cloud CDN fully supports Terraform, supports programmable CDN, and precisely controls edge behavior through a rule engine, greatly improving business application efficiency.

First, Terraform has become popular as an automated orchestration tool in recent years, and the number of calls has increased exponentially every year. On Alibaba Cloud CDN products, more than 20% of API calls come from Terraform. This year, Alibaba Cloud CDN fully supports Terraform, making it easier for more users to use CDN at the edge.

Second, about 90% of the bandwidth in actual business involves programmability. Through edge functions and easy-to-learn rules and syntax, the upgraded programmability of Alibaba Cloud CDN can help customers deliver quickly. In the future, customers can also The console can be customized according to its own business characteristics and needs.

Third, the rule-based engine can precisely control edge behavior, customize the usage conditions of core functions such as cache configuration and authentication configuration, customize acceleration policies, and improve acceleration efficiency. It can be implemented on all consoles for domestic and foreign countries. Simultaneous release in real time.

One-stop business perception

For traditional CDN services, offline logs and offline log dumping have become popular functions. This year, Alibaba Cloud has introduced more CDN-related services, such as integrated cloud monitoring and integrated ARMS, to help customers perform computing and computing at the edge more efficiently. Content distribution, improving full-link analysis capabilities, and enabling "cloud-edge-device" integrated acceleration, computing and security in one stop.

In the future, Alibaba Cloud CDN is also considering how to better coordinate with the central cloud.

At present, Alibaba Cloud provides various cloud services. In theory, CDN can be used for online business data distribution.

Alibaba Cloud CDN is connecting and integrating with more cloud services. The purpose is to allow users to more easily access the cloud ecosystem in the process link from access to activation, content distribution, and final monitoring.

Further, in embracing carbon neutrality and implementing carbon neutrality actions, Alibaba Cloud actively responds to the national dual-carbon strategy to achieve carbon footprint (measurement) capabilities. It is expected that in September, the "carbon bill" of each customer can be displayed through the Alibaba Cloud CDN. In the future, there will be three accounts on the CDN: one is the CDN usage bill, the second is the CDN fee bill, and the third is the CDN carbon bill. Alibaba Cloud hopes to drive the industry to work towards lower energy consumption and better help companies achieve carbon neutrality by measuring and generating "carbon consumption".

So, everything stems from acceleration, but much more than acceleration.

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