Life on the Edge: CDN and HTTPS Delivery in 2017

David Strauss

It's been possible for a while to deploy HTTPS with fast negotiation. Yet, many sites pay a heavy tax on performance by only deploying HTTPS from their origin (LAMP-style) infrastructure. In this presentation, we'll look at deployment strategies for HTTPS and CDNs -- as well as their impacts. We'll also consider how well Drupal 8 integrates with each of these models and rigorous ways to measure results.

We'll look at these deployment models:

  • Just a reverse proxy cache (like Varnish)
  • Traditional, asset-push CDNs
  • HTTPS just at the origin
  • Hybrid HTTPS from the origin for pages with CDN HTTPS for other assets
  • HTTPS deployed via CDN

And we'll consider their impacts on:

  • Security
  • Cost
  • Device compatibility
  • Ongoing maintenance requirements
  • Site visitor experience
  • Search-engine rankings

To bring everything fully into 2017, we'll also look at:

  • IPv6 and the surprising impacts on mobile performance
  • The promise (and limits) of HTTP/2
  • How all of these technologies and services work (or don't work) with BigPipe

Session Track

Performance and Scaling

Experience Level

Advanced

Drupal Version

When & Where

Time: 
Thursday, 28 September, 2017 - 12:00 to 13:00
Room: 
Schubert 4-5