Drupal can be a server heavy CMS. So there are alot of things you need to optimise to make it run as smoothly and as fast as possible. Load times can be a real traffic killer but there is hope. I have experienced a whole lot of techniques to optimise your Drupal website but this post is all about one  module called SimpleCDN. It is called SimpleCDN, I am guessing, as it was first made to work with the SimpleCDN network.

CDN simple means Content Distribution Network - a method where you share out parts of your site or mirror parts of your site to other servers around the world so your server, or one server, doesn't have to do all the work. In this example I am using it for my images. So all my images are served from one server and all my text and database content is served from another server. That is a basic ,and flawed description, but you should get the point.

I use SimpleCDN as they are cheap and reliable. So cheap in fact that when I signed up they give you a $25 dollar credit (not sure how long this offer will last) which gives you bags of usage for your average site. I haven't used all mine and it has been over a month. There are other networks available but they seemed to cost more.

I have more Drupal sites than I can manage but one of my sites (the one I use this module on) attracts over 3000 unique visits a day and is image heavy. I also get a little carried away with views and blocks so my site has a lot to serve up. Any optimisation is good optimisation. Recently I moved from Drupal Value Hosting to hostcolor (long story for another post) and in doing so I had to downgrade the speed of the server. This is where the simpleCDN module comes into play. By serving all my images, including automatically taking care of Imagecache images, from another server I can reduce the load on my poor little VPS.

Anyway I digress.

The module can be found here. Not alot of documentaion but I am happy to help with how to set it up. It takes no more than 2 minutes, I swear (although signing up to SimpleCDN might add a couple of minutes) and it just works.

Benefits:

1: Serve all images and audio from another server to reduce load on yours
2: It's cheap to use simpleCDN (other networks available)
3: It automagically takes care of imagecache produced images (no hacking code)
4: It provides improved speed and page load times
5: It's really easy to set up
6: I think that is enough...

I'm a fan because for so long I have struggled with server load from Drupal. This isn't a miracle cure but it adds a few more percent to my overall speed.

Drupal Project Page: http://drupal.org/project/simplecdn