Azure CDN (by Akamai) vs Akamai CDN showing very different results

Question

The majority of our users are located in China, and when loading sites/files from offshore CDNs we'd naturally expect longer latencies and lower throughput. In respect of Azure, we're running tests comparing: i) Akamai CDN, ii) Azure CDN (by Akamai), and iii) Azure CDN (by MS), and find that the results of Akamai and Azure (by Akamai) are vastly different.

I'm not sure if there are configuration issues. We've removed the vary: origin in the header per the other thread, but are rather stuck at the moment - here are the results:

1st Comparison: Akamai vs Azure (by Akamai)

• For this comparison, we don't have an Akamai account, so we just found an image of comparable size (so the image size impact should be negligible)
• URL1: https://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/images/promos/2020/edge-live-apac-homepage-promo.png?imwidth=550
• URL2: https://chinafytestms.azureedge.net/11228906_10203699485727811_4752775867419244499_n.jpg
• For a Live View, try this Page Comparison test, and for the Time Series we ran (are still running) see this link here. (where the first URL is Akamai, and the 2nd URL is Azure (by Akamai))

2nd Comparison: Azure (by Akamai) vs Azure (by MS)

• For this comparison, we use exactly the same image, but we wouldn't expect MS to be slower than Akamai here
• URL1: https://chinafytest.azureedge.net/11228906_10203699485727811_4752775867419244499_n.jpg
• URL2: https://chinafytestms.azureedge.net/11228906_10203699485727811_4752775867419244499_n.jpg
• For a Live View, try this Page Comparison test, and for the Time Series we ran (are still running), see this link here (where the first URL is Azure (by Akamai), and the 2nd is Azure (by MS))

We've tested this across not only Beijing, but Shanghai, and Guangzhou, with the point being that:
i) there is an unknown configuration issue, or
ii) the Akamai, and Azure CDN (by Akamai) are rather different

Any thoughts, or help would be very much appreciated.

Answer 1

China is a special case with Azure CDN Products, as there cannot be POP locations inside China. You can get Azure CDN Offerings from Azure China which do have locations inside China.

For the differences in delays, each CDN offering has different POPs near China, and will be served from the closest location. PoP locations from Azure CDN by Akami are not disclosed, so it will be difficult to get an exact answer on the routing.

For the first comparison, the Akamai image is almost definitely being served inside China, which is not possible with the Azure offering (As described in the first link), but would likely be more comparable (if not identical) if the Azure China offering were used.

For the 2nd comparison, they are two different offerings and will have different PoPs and latencies, so this is expected. Please let me know if I can provide any more information.