Procurement

CDN pricing cannot be compared reliably with one advertised per-gigabyte number. A useful estimate applies each provider’s current rate card or proposal to the same traffic, cache, security, and support assumptions. Build one workload model Record a representative month and a peak event separately. At minimum include: delivered bytes by billing region; HTTP and HTTPS request counts; cache-hit ratio and bytes fetched from origins or shields; purge and configuration-change volume; log volume and destination; image, video, edge-compute, WAF, bot, and DDoS usage; committed traffic, overage, and contract term; support tier and required service level. Use measured traffic where possible. If the application is new, publish the assumptions beside the estimate and run low, expected, and high scenarios. ...

Synopsis Multi-CDN cost depends on traffic forecasts, commit levels, overage exposure, and differences among regional products. Cost-aware routing, invoice reconciliation, and contract terms need a common model so that a routing decision does not create an unexpected commercial risk. Cost model foundations A simple model separates data transfer out, request charges, advanced product usage, and fixed fees. Each component varies by region and product family. The model expresses spend as a function of volume, mix, and route. Granularity by region and content type is required because prices and cache behavior differ. The model must match how providers bill so that reconciliation is possible without manual guesswork. ...

Synopsis This chapter provides a vendor-neutral request for proposal template for adding or renewing CDN providers in a multi-CDN deployment. The template covers scope, objectives, technical and operational requirements, test plans, pilot expectations, and an evaluation rubric. Fields are expressed as placeholders and may be tailored to regional or product constraints. Usage notes The template is designed to be copied into a standalone document. Placeholders use angle brackets. Optional sections can be removed if out of scope. Terminology follows definitions in related chapters so responses remain comparable across providers. ...