Edge Server

Explanation

An edge server is a CDN (Content Delivery Network) server deployed at the geographic edge of the network — close to the end user rather than in a central data center. Streaming services store cached copies of popular content on edge servers distributed across cities and regions worldwide. When a user in London starts streaming a Netflix film, the content is served from an edge server in or near London rather than from a data center in the United States. This reduces latency, cuts bandwidth costs across long-distance network links, and improves resilience — if one edge location has issues, the player falls back to a nearby location. Netflix's Open Connect program takes the edge concept further: Netflix ships its own edge appliances directly to large ISPs, storing the most popular titles directly on hardware inside the ISP's network. This dramatically reduces bandwidth costs for both Netflix and the ISP.