With this behavior enabled, Akamai can retrieve your cached content from another tier of servers that are closer to your origin server, rather than directly from your origin server.
It offers significant advantages for cached content:
- The demand for bandwidth at the origin server is reduced. This is often positive in itself and necessary to upscale applications.
- The time it takes for the product to retrieve content is reduced. The Tiered Distribution parent servers are generally located close to the production servers that use them.
Tiered Distribution is also classified as a Caching Feature. Take a look at About platform caching, to better understand this concept and learn how Tiered Distribution fits into this scenario.
How it works
Akamai servers located close to your origin server are designated as parents, who will cache your content and serve it to other servers on our platform. This will reduce the number of end-user requests that require responses from your origin.
Implementation
Set the Enable slider switch to On, and select the applicable Tiered Distribution Map from the drop-down. There are two classifications of the map available, each of which will improve your offload and general performance significantly (versus not using Akamai’s servers), but the maximum benefits are determined by which map you choose:
- Global. Select this if your goal is to reduce latency in your end-users requests. If you choose the global parent map, users anywhere in the world are likely to be close to a parent server. If the object they requested is in the parent server’s cache, they will receive that content very quickly. However, since there is a larger set of parent servers, fewer end-user requests will go through a given parent server, reducing the likelihood that the object a user request is in the cache.
- Local. This involves the selection of a specific region (Asia Pacific, Europe, United States West Coast, and others). Select this if your primary goal is to maximize the offload of your origin server. If you choose a Local map – one close to the geographical location of your origin server – there will be a smaller set of parent servers which increases the likelihood that the object a user requested is in the cache.
Tiered Distribution and Adaptive Media Delivery (AMD), Download Delivery, and Object Delivery
As a best practice, Tiered Distribution is auto-enabled in the Default Rule for AMD, Download Delivery, and Object Delivery property configurations. It’s optimized by what you set in the Origin Characteristics behavior.
So, if you’re using AMD, Download Delivery, or Object Delivery, you don’t need to add it to the Default Rule in your property, unless:
- You need to disable it. If you don’t need it in the Default Rule, add it as an optional behavior and set Enable to Off.
- You need to customize its features. Add it as an optional behavior to the Default Rule and set its options to fit your needs. (See Implementation above.) Only do this if you’re sure you need custom settings applied. If you add the Tiered Distribution behavior, its settings will override the auto-enabled, optimized settings.
Tiered Distribution isn’t enabled by default in subsequent rules in an AMD, DD, or OD property.
Tiered Distribution may conflict with optional features
Certain optional behaviors and services conflict with Tiered Distribution. (This is discussed in the conflicting behavior’s or service’s documentation.) If you need to disable it, add Tiered Distribution as an optional behavior and set Enable to Off. For best performance, talk to your account representative to confirm a conflict before disabling Tiered Distribution.
Remember Property Manager rule logic – specifically that the Default Rule applies to all requests. If you’re using behavior or service that conflicts with Tiered Distribution, set it accordingly in your property:
- Disable it in the Default Rule. Add the Tiered Distribution behavior in the Default Rule and set it to Off. Also, ensure that Tiered Distribution doesn’t exist in any subsequent rules that contain the conflicting behavior.