Using GitHub as a Content Delivery Network
This is a quick write up on how I’ve started utilizing GitHub as a Content Delivery Network(sort of) and how you can do the same as well.
Usually, CDNs are used to have a content delivered on your website in a fast manner and to save some space on your server from resources such as images, documents etc. I’ve tried to use GitHub as a CDN for somewhat similar reasons. I’m running this blog on GitHub pages and as you might know GitHub only allows contents under 1 GB per repository. I didn’t wanted to utlize my GitHub page’s site’s storage to store images that I end up using on the blog. So, I’ve figured out a way.
Repository as a CDN (RaaC) [?]
I thought of creating and using an another GitHub repository where I would store all the image resources and which can act as a mean to deliver content on my blog whenever requested. I created a repository named cdn which is actually a bare bone repository. I would add images and resources in here.
Now, as I’ve configured my GtHub pages site to work with my custom domain, I can easily access any content on this site using URL https://www.amitmerchant.com/cdn/<resource name in the repos>. For instance, There’s an image called bulb-min.jpg exists in the repository which I can access using the following URL: https://www.amitmerchant.com/cdn/bulb-min.jpg
And there you have it! Your free and instantly available CDN ready to use in few clicks. Easy-peasy!
This way I can save up the space on my original GitHub pages site which I don’t want to get exhauted under 1 GB of limit and in case if the “cdn” repository also gets exhasuted, I can always create an another repository named “cdn2” or something like that. ;)
In closing
I’m sure many here will find this funny but trust me it’s highly functional and one can surely use it as a CDN alternative which they can spin up in minutes. I hope this would be useful for someone who is looking for a quick CDN service. :)
Until next time!
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👋 Hi there! I'm Amit. I write articles about all things web development. You can become a sponsor on my blog to help me continue my writing journey and get your brand in front of thousands of eyes.
