Microsoft has introduced token authentication with Azure CDN. The company says the feature is now generally available for the Content Delivery Network. In an official post, Microsoft says that token authentication is available in Azure CDN from Verizon Premium.
Verizon Premium customers can enable to the feature now. Once enabled each request is authenticated by CDN edge POPs before it is delivered that prevents Azure CDN from serving assets to unauthorized users.
Microsoft points out that authentication is used to prevent hotlinking. The company says an example of this is a website like a message board users assets without permission. Content delivery costs can be impacted by this, so the token authenticator can save costs.
We are pleased to announce the general availability of token authentication with Azure CDN. This feature is available in the Azure CDN from Verizon Premium offering. We have enabled the feature for all new and existing Verizon Premium customers.
Token-based authentication can support multiple users. Microsoft says it is easily scalable and has added security.
The company details the benefits of the feature:
- Easily scalable, no need to store user login information on the server.
- Mobile application ready solution.
- Provides security, each request must contain the token and after the token expires user needs to login again.
- Prevents attacks such as cross-site request forgery (CSRF, also known as session riding).
Azure CDN
Microsoft’s Azure Content Delivery Network is a global solution for managing high-bandwidth content. This is achieved by caching content in physical nodes in strategically placed locations. It caches static web content to deliver content to end users.
The benefits of using the CDN to cache web site assets include:
- Better performance and user experience for end users, especially when using applications where multiple round-trips are required to load content.
- Large scaling to better handle instantaneous high load, like at the start of a product launch event.
- By distributing user requests and serving content from edge servers, less traffic is sent to the origin.
