Optimized Origin with the NOC CDN

A core step when setting up a CDN is defining your origin—the server (IP/host) where the CDN fetches content from. Some CDNs let you configure multiple origins for load balancing or failover, but very few decide which origin is best for each region in real time.

A handful of platforms also support multiple origins so administrators can design their own balancing and availability patterns.

But which CDN actively chooses the best origin based on the user’s location and current health?

Optimized Origins with NOC

NOC’s CDN supports three modes:

• Multiple origins (round-robin): Simple distribution across defined origins.
• Failover: Primary plus backup(s) for resilience.
• Optimized origin (default): Smart routing that picks the fastest, closest, healthy origin for the user’s region.

The first two deliver market parity. The third—optimized origin—is where NOC pushes ahead. Rather than blindly splitting traffic, our edge selects the most appropriate origin per POP, factoring proximity and health, so uncached fetches are as fast as possible.

Example setup (three origins in different regions):

• Server 1.2.3.4 — us-east-2 (Ohio)
• Server 2.3.4.5 — ap-southeast-1 (Singapore)
• Server 3.4.5.6 — eu-west-2 (London)

With a typical round-robin CDN, traffic from any region might hit any origin—suboptimal for latency and egress. With NOC’s optimized origin, our US POPs prefer the US origin, APAC POPs prefer Singapore, and EU POPs prefer London. That makes cache misses far cheaper and faster for users in-region.

The system also performs real-time availability checks and self-heals: if a preferred origin degrades, the edge shifts to alternates and automatically restores the original path when it’s healthy again.

How to Use Optimized Origin

If you have more than one server, add your origins (space-separated) in CDN Settings → Your Domain.

1.2.3.4 2.3.4.5 3.4.5.6

Optimized is the default mode. If you prefer standard round-robin, append the keyword:

1.2.3.4 2.3.4.5 3.4.5.6 round-robin

To designate a backup:

1.2.3.4 2.3.4.5 backup:3.4.5.6

That’s it—NOC will take it from there.