Patent ID: 7600025

Claim:
A method operative in an Internet content delivery network (ICDN) having a set of content servers organized into regions and that provides delivery of Internet content on behalf of participating content providers, wherein the Internet content delivery network is managed by an Internet content delivery network service provider distinct from the participating content providers, comprising: having the Internet content delivery network service provider establish a set of one or more enterprise CDN regions outside but within or electronically close to a demilitarized zone (DMZ) associated with a firewall of an enterprise, wherein each enterprise CDN region has one or more surrogate origin servers, wherein the set of one or more enterprise CDN regions are managed by the Internet content delivery network service provider as part of the ICDN, and wherein a given surrogate origin server in an enterprise CDN region is adapted to host both Internet content that has been tagged by at least one participating content provider for delivery over the ICDN and intranet content that has been tagged by the enterprise for delivery over the ICDN; responsive to a request for given Internet or intranet content originating from an end user within the enterprise, mapping the end user to a preferred enterprise CDN region that is likely to host the given Internet or intranet content; serving the given Internet or intranet content from the preferred enterprise CDN region; and responsive to a DNS query or connection request originating from outside the enterprise and associated with a piece of intranet content that has been tagged by the enterprise for delivery over the ICDN, preventing the DNS query or connection request from being processed within a enterprise CDN region to restrict access to the piece of intranet content from the enterprise CDN region.