I have a big Enterprice customer that need answer to following questions before they can start using Glide with live data.
Hi Jon.
First, have a look at Glide’s Data Privacy & Security center.
Second, for anything related to entreprise accounts, you could contact the sales team, they are probably accustomed to answering such questions.
Hello @nathanaelb , I wanted to know what this means, if you could tell. If not, tagging @NoCodeAndy for this 
Our users are based in Bangladesh. When we use other online services (whether it’s Zoho, Airtable, Xbox, Fortnite), these services usually connect to Singapore servers by default since they’re the fastest (even though technically India is the closest, the server speed and quality in Singapore are better).
I wanted to know two things:
When Glide says it’s hosted in the “Google Cloud Platform”, does this mean that users will automatically be connected to the Google Cloud data center closest to them? Aka will our users be connected to Singapore servers, or to servers in Iowa, USA?
Glide usually takes a much longer time to load, when compared to other apps/sites. For example, the main website (Glideapps.com) and the community forum (forum.glideapps.com) loads relatively quickly, but the app editor’s homepage (go.glideapps.com) and the app themselves take a long time to load. The last week, out of our 19 users, almost everyone faced the “Could not load network resources” error at least once, even though we never faced this issue with Gmail/Airtable/any other Saas. Our app is relatively lightweight, and we just started to test things out. I’m concerned that once we roll this app to our clients, they’ll give the same complaints. So my quesiton is, is the location of the server a factor in the loading speed?
I asked the same question to ChatGPT, and I got this response. Don’t know how accurate this is though:
When Glide states that it’s hosted on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) with servers located in Iowa, USA, it means that their primary infrastructure for hosting is in that specific data center. Here are answers to your questions:
User Connection to the Nearest Data Center:
GCP has a global network of data centers. However, the location of the primary server specified by a service (like Glide’s Iowa servers) means that the core operations, data storage, and application hosting are being managed from that location. This doesn’t necessarily mean that users will always connect to the closest data center for every request. Users will generally connect to the servers specified by the service provider unless there’s a Content Delivery Network (CDN) in place to cache and deliver content from the closest data center.
Server Location and Loading Speed:
Yes, the location of the server can significantly impact loading speed, especially for dynamic content. Since Glide’s primary servers are in Iowa, USA, users in Bangladesh might experience higher latency compared to services hosted closer to them, such as in Singapore. This could explain why Glide takes longer to load compared to other services that might be utilizing closer servers.
Additional Considerations:
Content Delivery Network (CDN): Some services use CDNs to distribute static content (images, scripts, etc.) across various global data centers, which can help in faster loading times for users globally. If Glide uses a CDN for its static assets, it might help with loading parts of the application faster, but dynamic content still needs to be fetched from the primary server.
Network Issues: The “Could not load network resources” error might be due to network latency, server-side issues, or local internet issues. Since other SaaS applications don’t show this problem, it’s more likely an issue with how Glide’s backend infrastructure is set up or how it handles requests from your region.
App Optimization: If Glide’s application is not optimized well, even lightweight apps can face performance issues. Ensuring efficient code, minimized API calls, and optimized queries can help in reducing load times.
In summary, server location can indeed be a factor in loading speed, and in Glide’s case, the primary hosting in Iowa could contribute to the slower performance experienced by users in Bangladesh. You might want to reach out to Glide’s support to see if they have any options for optimizing performance for international users or any upcoming improvements in their infrastructure.
