CDN Usage vs Direct Server Serving

Your servers are in Virginia. A user in Sydney opens your page, and the browser requests an image. The request crosses the Pacific Ocean, and the response crosses it back. That round trip takes roughly 200 milliseconds before your code does any work. Faster servers do not change the number. The delay is the distance itself.

There are two ways to serve that user. Direct serving means every request, from everywhere, travels to your own servers. Your own servers are called the origin