edge 2014: maintaining the balance: getting the most of your cdn with ikea

Maintainthe balance

To get the most out of your CDN…

Johannes Eckerdal

8 October 2014

Headlines of today

IKEA on the world wide web...

The Experience Delivery Network

Maintaining the Balance

Property Mgr rocked the world

Examples from Reality

1:45min movie about IKEA

IKEA has been

present on the

Internet since

1997 and we are

now building our

5th generation

web platform.

...a complex bastard with 170 Million visits in August 2014. Present in 46+

countries whereof 1/3 with eCommerce in some flavor.

From Notepad web to…

5

6

IKEA today use

AQUA Ion and

KONA to secure

delivery of +150

domains

Sometimes we need a

CDN

ExperienceDelivery Network

deliver content.

deliver an Experience.

deliver the Brand.

create a value.

WETo use the CDN as an EDN we need to do more on the Edge…

Visitor Characteristics Check

• GEO, Device, Customer

Border Control

• Minimize Attack Window

• Minimize Attack Window

• Minimize Attack Window

• Kill the zombies

• Black Hole

• Lock the door

Some things make sense to do on

the Edge

Traffic Control

• Redirect

• Rewrite

• Origin this or that

• Service degradation mgmtAdaption for Reality

• Network status

• Browser capabilities

Minimize the Attack windowCache

Res ipsa loquitur…

(Unfortunately a bigger

issue than we normally

imagine)

Ignore QS

Ignore QS by default and

include it where it’s

necessary

Deny POST

Deny POST method by

default and allow it only

where it’s absolutely

necessary

Ignore Case

Ignore Case by default and

activate it where it’s

necessary

Even the simplest Make Sense Rule complicates life for the developer

BOT strategy

Why should bots be allowed

to take resources from real

users?

• Using functionality on the Edge impacts Development

• The CDN will not become the EDN unless its an integrated component in your complete stack

• Using functionality on the Edge must be done with Care

Thebalance

Pure

Simple

Nice-to-have

Stand-alone

CDN Agnostic CDN Dependent

Integrated

Vendor lock-in

Vendor independence

Complex

More secureLess secure

Content Experience

Vendor dependency

Usage of functionality

Usage of what we for

EDN approach, but with maintained

balance. There are plenty of more

functionality we could use…

An example of approach…

Managed service.

Traditional CDN approach.

+90% 12%

The operation was a success, butthe patient died

The operation was a success

• IaaS• DevelopmentaaS• SupportaaS• ServiceaaS• RequirementaaS• ResponsibilityaaS

• How to maintain the balance if we buy CDN as a Managed Service?

• In the end of the day –does it matter who to blame when your brand goes down?

IKEA CDNCompetence Centre

We have tried a Managed Service of the Managed Service…

We have tested a Do-it-yourself approach…

We have settled a

team.

*

* The name used in this presentation is fiction, and should not be confused with the internal organizational name.

CDN Competence & Support

CDN Competence & Support

Monitoring SIRT

CDN

CDN

Application

Application

Application

Network

Application

Not only Support and Competence, BUTRequirements on Development

BudgetStrategy

And then came

Propertymanager

PM changes the equation

We can do more and still maintain the balance.

• Boosts Time to market

• Empowers us to try and explore

• Puts you in Driving seat

Examples from

Reality

Problem

There is a trillion permutations of the same things... Too low cache hit ratio,

too high response times, origin capacity constraint.

/product/1,2,3,4,5/ and /product/2,3,4,5/ are almost the same.

/product/1,2,3,4,5/ and /product/5,4,3,2,1/ same-same, but different…

Solution

Use ESI to itemize and assembly at the edge. Cache items individually.

Balance maintained

Yes, the functionality is not changed. We just get the most out of the CDN.

Web Service delivery

23

24

PM implementation

34 lines34 lines

From advanced MD

override in CM, created by

PS, to a few rules we

created outselves in PM.

From advanced MD

override in CM, created by

PS, to a few rules we

created outselves in PM.

Problem

Redirects kill user performance. Redirect cache hitRatio is too low.

Solution

1000s of redirects maintained in origin Content Mgmt System. Instead of

deploying the list of RewriteRules to origin webServers, we deploy the list to

Akamai and use ESI to loop through it and create the redirect on the fly – at

the Edge. Immediate activation.

Balance maintained

Yes, the functionality is not changed.

Works even better for Mobile Detection & Redirect…

...where mapping between m. and www. is dynamic.

Redirect engine

25

26

PM implementation

the listthe list

From an advanced

configuration (not even

CM) to a super-simple

PM version.

From an advanced

configuration (not even

CM) to a super-simple

PM version.

The exception…

Obviously it was too good to be true. A redirect is not a redirect.

The redirect depends…

Problem

Out-of-the-box does not scale. Common backend for all markets. Not

possible to optimize for optimal performance – always least common

denominator.

Solution

Functional Clusters instead of Market based Clusters. URL-routing of traffic

done already at the Edge. Each cluster optimized for its task, and issues are

isolated to a higher degree.

Balance maintained

Yes, the functionality is not changed. It may easily be done by URI-routing

e.g. in LoadBalancer.

Functional clusters

28

29

PM implementation

From a mess… with a

mixture of CM Basic

Rules and advanced MD

override...

From a mess… with a

mixture of CM Basic

Rules and advanced MD

override...

…to direct control and

visibility.

Easily changed and

activated.

…to direct control and

visibility.

Easily changed and

activated.

Usage scenario

For SEO reasons the same image/document have different paths.

Problem

Implementation of Rewrite rules differs in origin and at CDN. Different

methods has previously been used to solve the same thing.

Solution

Property Manager! Modify path by regex is what we use at origin, and in all

test systems. Now we can replicate this 1:1 in Akamai.

Balance maintained

Yes, now we are in control ourselves.

Regex rewrites

30

/image/billy-bookshelf-12345.jpg = /image/billy-bokhylla-12345.jpg

From origin code to PM

31

Replication of Code – Replication of Test – Replication of Function.

All good then…?

Simplifies our communication

Complete Visibility

DIY

Nested rules

Complex things are made in a simple way

There are some dark clouds on the PM sky…

The more you get – the more you want

PerformancePerformance

BugsBugs

”Help” Section”Help” Section

MD XML generated far more complicated

Debug Tools missing

Debug Tools missing

Finalwords...

To get the most out of your

CDN…

Get in Control

Stay in Control

Maintain the balance

16-Oct-14 [IKEA Business Unit/Topic name] 37

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