In a content delivery network comprising multiple servers positioned at different locations, and including clients respectively located closer to one of the servers than to others, a method distributes specified file content to respective clients. The method initially uploads the specified content to a particular server, and generates a download plan for replicating the specified content at one or more other servers in successive stages, wherein each of the other servers is designated as a target server. The clients are notified, when the specified content is available for downloading at each target server. One mode of operation, of the target servers, immediately serves the specified content to a given client from the target server; another mode notifies the given client of the amount of time remaining until the target server completes replicating the specified content.