Cache strategy
A written rule set mapping each content type to a TTL, cache key and invalidation method, including the responses that should bypass the cache entirely.
Platform & Containers
Edge & CDN Configuration
Assets and APIs served from the edge, with cache rules that expire exactly when they should.
The work
What this actually does
Caching is easy until it is wrong. We start by classifying your content: static assets that never change under a hashed name, pages that can be stale for a minute, and responses that must never be cached at all. Each class gets its own rule, TTL and cache key, so the CDN stops guessing and starts behaving predictably.
Most of the work then sits with deployment: a new build publishes hashed filenames and purges only the small set of unhashed entry points, so releases take effect immediately without flushing an entire distribution. We also configure origin shielding, compression, TLS settings and edge functions where the logic genuinely belongs closer to the user.
If any of these sound familiar
- Users clear their cache because they see last week's page
- Every deployment purges the whole distribution just in case
- Assets load slowly for customers far from your origin region
- Cache headers are inconsistent between services and teams
Scope
What's included
Every engagement on this page covers the following, sized to your setup rather than delivered as a fixed package. If something here is not relevant to you, it comes off the scope and off the price.
Multi-region delivery
Distributions sized for where your users actually are, with origin shielding and regional failover so a distant origin does not slow every request.
Deployment invalidation
Pipeline steps that purge exactly what changed, using hashed asset names so most releases need no invalidation at all and the few that do finish in seconds.
Edge functions
Redirects, A/B routing, header rewrites and lightweight auth moved to the edge where they belong, with the latency and debugging trade-offs stated plainly.
Performance measurement
Cache hit ratio, time to first byte and origin load tracked per route, so tuning decisions are based on data rather than on how the site feels.
TLS and security headers
Certificates, modern cipher suites and security headers configured at the edge, with WAF rules and bot controls where they add value without blocking real traffic.
What changes
What teams typically see
95%Typical cache hit ratio
1 purgeInvalidation per release
35%Lower origin request load
Handover
What you keep
Everything produced during the engagement is yours: the repositories, the accounts, the documentation. There is no proprietary layer and nothing to unlicense if you take the work in-house.
- Cache rule matrix per content type and route
- Invalidation steps wired into the deploy pipeline
- Distribution configuration held in version control
- Edge function code with tests and rollback notes
- Before and after performance report by region
Tooling
Tools we use here
A starting point, not a requirement. We work in whatever you already run wherever it does the job.
Cloudflare
AWS
Kubernetes
Terraform
nginx
GitHub
Prometheus
How it runs
From first call to handover
The same four steps on every engagement. You see each one before it starts and can stop at any of them.
- 01
Audit current caching
We capture real responses across the site, read the headers your origin sends and work out which routes are being cached by accident and which are never cached at all.
- 02
Design the rule set
A table of content types, cache keys, TTLs and purge behaviour, reviewed with the teams who own the pages before anything is changed in production.
- 03
Configure and deploy
Distributions, edge functions and headers are defined in code, applied to staging first, and validated with a script that checks the behaviour of each rule.
- 04
Tune against real traffic
After launch we watch hit ratio, origin load and error rates, adjusting TTLs and keys where the initial assumptions were too conservative or too aggressive.
Questions
Asked before we start
Will caching break our logged-in pages?
It should not, because personalised responses belong outside the shared cache. We mark authenticated routes as private or bypass, and key anything cacheable on the headers that genuinely change the response rather than on the session.
Do we need to change our origin servers?
Usually only slightly. The main requirement is honest, consistent cache headers. Where an origin cannot set them well, edge rules can override, but fixing the headers at the source is simpler to reason about and easier to debug.
Which CDN should we use?
It depends on where your traffic is, what you already pay for and how much you need programmable edge logic. CloudFront, Cloudflare and Fastly all work well; we are more interested in using one properly than in switching you for a marginal gain.
How quickly does a purge take effect?
Most providers propagate invalidation in a few seconds, but global consistency is not instant and some regions lag briefly. That is why hashed filenames matter: if the name changes, there is nothing to purge and no window of inconsistency.
Platform & Containers
Often needed alongside this
Networking & Data
DNS, TLS & Certificate Automation
Certificates that renew themselves, DNS managed as code, and no more expiry-day outages.
- ACM, cert-manager and Let's Encrypt automation
- Route53, Cloudflare and Azure DNS as code
- Expiry monitoring with renewal alerting
Networking & Data
Networking, Ingress & Service Mesh
Traffic that reaches the right service, stays encrypted in transit, and fails over without dropping connections.
- Load balancers, ingress and API gateways
- Istio and Cilium service mesh, mTLS by default
- Traffic shifting for canary and blue/green rollout
Reliability & Performance
Monitoring & Observability
Know what broke, why it broke and who it affects — before your customers have to tell you.
- Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog & CloudWatch
- OpenTelemetry tracing and structured logging
- SLO dashboards and actionable alert routing
Worth a conversation about Edge & CDN Configuration?
Bring the specific problem. We will tell you honestly whether this is the service that fixes it, and what it would take.