1. THE rapidly evolving state OF
digital
spotlıght
t h e c o n n e c t e d E n t e r p r i s e M A R C H 2 0 1 5 s p e c i a l i s s u e
S H U T T E R S T O C K
Content Delivery Networks
Content Delivery Networks today
The market is growing rapidly and changing, featuring a host of new
suppliers, new technologies and new options that make plotting your
CDN strategy infinitely more complex than just a few years ago. 2
The features palette
Key questions to ask as you evaluate CDN products and services to
ensure your solution will measure up. 9
Lessons learned
Buyers talk about what has worked for them,the tips,tricks and best
practices that come from deploying and using the technology. 12
inside

2. networkworld.com March 2015
digital
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2
Content Delivery Networks
Content
Delivery
Networks
todayB Y B O B v i o l i n o
S H U T T E R S T O C K
Content delivery network players are innovating
at a frenzied pace to keep up with companies
that are striving to 1) meet customer demand
for rich content experiences on a range of
devices, while 2) figuring out how to serve that
content from both on-premise resources and
hosted cloud environments.

3. networkworld.com March 2015
digital
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Mixallofthattogetherandyou
getarapidlygrowingandchang-
ingCDNmarketthatfeaturesahost
ofnewsuppliers,newtechnologies
andnewoptionsthatmakeplotting
yourCDNstrategyinfinitelymore
complexthanjusta
fewyearsago.
The CDN market
is projected to grow
from $3.71 billion in
2014 to $12.16 bil-
lion by 2019, for a
compound annual
growth rate of
27%, according to a
March 2014 report
by Research and
Markets.
Fuelingthe
growthistheinsa-
tiabledemandforall
kindsofcontent,saysLydiaLeong,
vicepresidentanddistinguished
analystintheTechnologyandSer-
viceProvidergroupatGartner.It’s
notjustthegrowingvolumeofcon-
tentbeingconsumed,butalsothe
richnessofthatcontent.Peopleare
streaminghighdefinitioncontent
tobigandsmallscreensandusing
mobiledevicestoaccesstheInternet
fromeverywhere, shesays.“The
contentismoredynamic,it’sbigger
andfasterandthere’smoreofit.”
CDN functions
today include con-
tent delivery, analyt-
ics, caching, digital
rights management
and streaming
video platform, all of
which are becoming
more important for
organizations.
“Mobiledevices
arebecomingthe
preferreddeviceto
accesscontent,”says
AkshaySharma,
researchdirectorin
theCarrierNetworkInfrastructure
groupatGartner.“Andaspeople
tendtowatchless‘live’contentthat
isbroadcastandmore‘cached’con-
tent,theCDNvaluebecomesmore
significant.CDNsofferservices
thatcanimprovetheuserexperi-
3
The CDN market
is projected to
grow from
$3.71billion
in2014to$12.16
billionby2019,
foracompound
annualgrowthrate
of27%.
Source: Research and Markets

4. Mobile devices are becoming the
preferred device to
access content.
‘‘
networkworld.com March 2015
digital
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enceforWebandmobilecontentand
applications,includingrichmediaand
video,whileprovidingsecurityfunc-
tions[and]optimizationfunctions.”
Butmuchhaschangedinthemarket
inthelastseveralyears—includingthe
technologymixandoptions—asCDN
providersinvestinnewtoolstokeep
upwithshiftingdemands,including
theadoptionofcloudservices.
Morevendors,moretechnology
For enterprises looking to adopt
CDNs and exploring related technolo-
gies, there are far more vendors and
technology choices than there were
just a few years ago.
WhileexpertssayAkamaiisbyfar
thelargestvendorinthemarket,companiessuch
asChinaCache,LimelightNetworks,Aryaka,
CacheFly,CloudFlare,Yottaa,Verizon-EdgeCast,
CDNetworks,Level3Communications,Ama-
zonWebServices,InstartLogicandFastlyhave
becomenotableplayers.
“TheindustryhasevolvedalongwiththeInter-
netandtheapplicationsthatthedevelopersofthe
worldhaveconceived,”saysJimDavis,seniorana-
lyst,ServiceProviders,at451Research.“We’ve
movedfromstaticWebpagestohighlyevolved
Webapplicationsthatincorporatecodefrommul-
tiplesources,frompostagestamp-sizedvideoto
streamingvideothat’sdisplayedonHDTVsin
consumers’homes.”
TheCDNmarket“ismovingextremelyfastto
meetenterpriseneedsandtooutfox
thecompetition,whichiscreepingin
fromallsides,”addsMarkGrannan,an
analystatForresterResearchcovering
applicationdevelopmentanddelivery.
Content delivery networkofferings
startedoutusingdistributedcaches
tominimizelatency-inducedperfor-
mancepainsandoffloadtrafficfrom
theorigin.Enterprisebuyerslatchedon
tobolsterWebsiteandvideodelivery
performance,Grannansays.
While this still holds true, the past
five years have seen dramatic change.
The technical changes are broad,
Grannan says, but four trends are
driving change: the massive growth in
media consumption; the rise of mobile
devices and applications; the blurring of lines
between various cloud services; and the enter-
prise demand for global infrastructure.
“Therearealotmoreoptionsforenterprises
now,”Grannansays.“ItusedtobethatAkamai
wassynonymouswithCDN,butthemarketsawa
dramaticnumberofnewentrantsbetween2008
and2012,eachgravitatingtowardsatechnical,
4
And as people tend to watch less ‘live’ content
that is broadcast and more ‘cached’ content,
the CDN value becomes more significant.”
Akshay Sharma, research director in the
Carrier Network Infrastructure group at Gartner

5. digital
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regionalorverticalniche.”
Forexample,Limelightofferscloud-basedser-
vicesforenterprisesfocusedongaming(including
gamedevelopment,promotionanddelivery)and
mediaandbroadcast,withservicesthatenable
mediacontenttobeconvertedintodifferentfor-
matsfordeliveryandplayback.
Limelightoperates“aglobalnetworkofdensely
architectedpointsofpresenceconnectedwitha
private,media-gradebackbone”tosupportsoft-
waredelivery,Websitedeliveryandvideodeliv-
ery,accordingtoSteveMiller-Jones,directorof
productmanagement.“Allourservicesaresup-
portedwithourcontrolportalandrangeofreal
timeanalytics,”hesays.Limelightispoweredby
thecompany’sownnetworkofservers,Jonessays.
Anothersupplier,Fastly,claimstobethe
onlyCDNvendorthatcancachecertaintypesof
content—forexampleunpredictable,frequently
changingcontentsuchasinventorydataonaWeb
storesite;computergameresultsonacommunity
wiki,thecommentssectionofanewsarticle,or
sportsscoresthatneedtobeupdated—inrealtime.
WhenenterprisesareevaluatingaCDNvendor,
“theyusuallyhaveatraditionalsetofcheckboxes
thatthey’relookingtotickoff,likecachingimages/
HTML/otherstaticcontent,”saysHannahSimon,
seniorcontentmarketingmanageratFastly.“But
oftenthesecompaniesaren’tawareofhowmuch
contenttheycouldbecaching,becausethey’retold
bytheircurrentorpreviousCDNproviderthat
somecontentis‘uncacheable.’”
InstartLogicandYottaaaimtofixslowcom-
mercesitesbyfocusingonstreamingandapp-
sequencingcapabilitiesrespectively,Grannan
says.CloudflareandIncapsulaareusingastrong
distributeddenialofservice(DDoS)andWeb
applicationfirewallcapabilitysettoactasthehook
fortheirCDNservices.
CacheFlyisfocusedonthroughput,withits
TCP-anycasttechnologyandnetworkinfrastruc-
turereducingthenetworkhopsneeded,which
translates,itsays,intothebestavailableCDN
throughput.
Aryakaisfocusedonahybridwide-areanet-
work(WAN)capability—hybridasincombining
CDNandWANoptimizationintoasingleoffer-
ing—to meet enterprise software-as-a-service
(SaaS) needs. CDN vendors tend to build out
capacity on top of a partner’s network infra-
structure, Grannan says. “They rarely ‘own’
their delivery capabilities, other than the serv-
ers and software, and oftentimes lease pieces of
that stack,” he says. “The value proposition is the
vertically integrated set of services that combines
network [including connectivity and bandwidth],
hardware [including routers, switches and serv-
5 networkworld.com March 2015
The CDN market “is moving extremely fast to meet
enterprise needs and to outfox the competition,
which is creeping in from all sides.”
Mark Grannan, an analyst at Forrester Research covering application development and delivery.
‘‘

6. networkworld.com March 2015
digital
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6
ers], and software to make this possible.”
Manyofthesevendors“arenowexpanding
beyondtheiruniquevalueproposition,”Grannan
says.“Theirinitialdisruptionhasgivenwaytoa
needtoincreasetheirpenetrationintoenterprise
accounts,andtofendofflarger,moreestablished
CDNcompetitorsduringrenewals.[Theestab-
lishedvendors]themselvesarereinventing,rein-
vestingandrepackagingtostaycompetitive.”
IndustryleaderAkamai,forexample,with
salesof$2billionin2014,hasbeenbusyrounding
outitsportfoliobyadding
newservicesandacquir-
ingcompanies. Acquisi-
tionshaveincludedProlexic
(DDoSsecurity),Verivue
(CDNtechsaimedatservice
providers),Blaze(frontend
optimizationtechnology)
and,mostrecently,Xerocole
(DNSsecurity).
ReportsForbes: “Ascompetitorsgrowincreas-
inglycapableoffastcontentdeliveryatsimilar
prices,Akamaihaspositioneditselfasafullser-
vicesprovidertoutingitsabilitytooffermultiple
value-addedservicessuchassecuritysolutions,
appaccelerators,deliveryoftargetedadvertising
andcloud-basedservicesforitscustomers.Value-
addedservicesnowaccountformorethan50%of
Akamai’soverallrevenuesandhavehighergross
marginscomparedtobasiccontentdelivery.”
Akamai’sCDNcloudconsistsof170,000serv-
ersin102countries. Butthatisn’tstoppingupstarts
fromcomingafterashareofthepie.Alistofven-
dorsintheCDNecosystemmaintainedbyDan
Rayburn,executivevicepresidentofStreamingMe-
dia.comandaprincipalanalystatFrostand Sulli-
van, includes more than three dozen companies.
“ThetermCDNmeansmanythingstodifferent
peopleandtodayisanumbrellatermthatcoversa
lotofdifferenttypesofcontentdeliveryservices,”
RayburnnotesinhisCDNupdate.Theseinclude
videostreaming,softwaredownloads,Weband
CDNs account for a large and grow-
ing share of the content delivered
bytheInternettoday,includingtext,
documents, graphics, scripts, soft-
ware,mediafiles,applications,social
networks, live streaming media and
on-demand streaming media.
Whereas CDNs were an adjunct of the Inter-
net just a few years ago, today CDNs are the
network, accounting for more than half of all
consumer Internet traffic, says Craig Labovitz,
cofounder and CEO of Deepfield, a provider of
products that help companies build and man-
age large cloud and network infrastructures.
The business model for CDNs is fairly
straightforward: content providers includ-
ing media and e-commerce companies pay
CDN operators to deliver their content to indi-
vidual users as well as enterprises, and CDNs
payISPs,carriersand
network operators for
hosting their servers
in their data centers.
CDNs
SHUTTERSTOCK

7. 7
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networkworld.com March, 2015
Content Delivery Networks
mobilecontentacceleration,licensed/managed
CDN,transparentcaching,front-endoptimization,
andservicestomeasureCDNperformance,load
balancingandanalyticsandcloudintelligence.
“It’sacomplexecosystemwithalotofvendors
bothlargeandsmall,”Rayburnwrites.“Youalso
havesomeCDNsthatcrossoverintootherindus-
trieslikesecurityandWANoptimization,”which
forthemostpartarenotincludedinhisvendorlist.
While there’s a lot of talk about telcos and car-
riers in the CDN market, Rayburn notes, the vast
majority of them have built CDNs for their own
internal use and are not selling them as a com-
mercial CDN service. As a result, it’s not accurate
to say they all compete with traditional service-
based CDNs.
Thereareafewexceptions,Rayburnsays,such
asLevel3,Verizon(EdgeCast),ComcastandTata,
whichoffercommercialCDNservicesandcom-
peteagainstothercommercialCDNs.Butmost
telcoandcarrier-basedcommercialCDNservices
arebasedonresellingatraditionalCDN,hesays,
suchasAT&TresellingAkamaiservices.
Impact of the cloud and mobility
Cloudcomputingandthegrowthofmobile
devicesarehavingahugeimpactinanumberof
ways,expertssay.Thelargercloudserviceprovid-
ers,suchasAmazon Web Services,arehavingan
especiallybiginfluence.
“CDNwaspartoftheorigi-
nal‘cloud,’butsincethelate
2000’sandoverthenext
fewyears,cloudservicesare
converging,”Grannansays.
“CDNprovidersareacquiring
offeringsinparallelmarkets,
likeAkamai’s acquisition of
Prolexic’ssecuritycapabili-
ties.Andhostingproviders
areadoptingcachingtech-
nologytodirectlycompete
withtheCDNs,likeMicrosoft
Azure’slicensingofVerizon
DigitalMediaServices.”
CDNcompanies“aremak-
ingtheshiftwithecosystem
partnershipswithcloudpro-
vidersaswellasmobileinfrastructureplayers,”
Sharmasays.“CloudprovidersarebecomingCDN
providersandCDNplayersareofferingfunctions
thatcloudserviceprovidershaveoffered,along
withpeeringrelationshipsbetweenthem.”
CompaniessuchasFastlyandLimelightare
“embracingpolicy-controlled,cloud-basedstorage
andreplication,withpowerfulcloud-basedsoft-
wareforstreamingacrossanydevice—whichthe
Akamaisarealsoembracing,”Sharmasays.
Providersaremovingawayfrom“box-centric”
solutionstomoreholisticofferingsaddressing
cloud-basednetworkfunctions,networkelasticity,
scalability,highavailabilityandasinglearchitec-
tureformultipleservices,Sharmasays.
“Themulti-purposeflexibilitythatthecloud
bringshaspositivesandnegatives,”Sharmasays.
Amongthepositivesofcloud-basedservicesare
beingabletorunoncommonoff-theshelfhard-
wareasopposedtoproprietaryplatforms,allow-
ingforbest-of-breedsoftwaresolutionsthatcanbe
runinamoreagiledeploymentmanner,withthe
scalethatthecloudoffers.
Onthenegativeside,companiesneedtoensure

8. 8
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networkworld.com March, 2015
theyhavethepropercontrolsinplacetomanage
variouselementsofcloud-basedservices.
Pushedtotheedge
Withmobiledevicesincreasinglyusedtoaccess
onlinecontent,CDNprovidersareworkingwith
mobileinfrastructurevendorstopushwork-
loadstothenetworkedge.Forexample,mobile
infrastructurevendorssuchasEricsson,Alcatel
Lucent,Nokiaandothersareofferingcloudradio
accessnetworksolutionswithlocalizedcaching
andcontentoptimizationfunctions,Sharmasays.
“ThiswillbringtheCDNclosertothecon-
sumer,andecosystempartnershipshavebeen
announcedbyCDNplayersandmobileinfrastruc-
tureplayers,”hesays.
So-called Mobile-Edge Computing (MEC)
“offers application developers and content pro-
viders cloud-computing capabilities and an IT
service environment at the edge of the mobile net-
work,” Sharma says. “This environment is char-
acterized by ultra-low latency and high band-
width as well as real-time access to radio network
information that can be leveraged by applica-
tions.” By being localized, buffering delays can
be minimized and enterprises can embrace use
cases including location services, the Internet of
Things, augmented reality, optimized local con-
tent distribution and data caching.
Withinthecategoryofmobileservicesand
devices,Davisthinkstwotrends
willbekeytogrowingenterprise
useofCDNs.
“Enterprises are trying to bal-
ance the growth of mobile as a
new channel for customer inter-
action, and opportunities for
workforce efficiency with the
security issues that arise with
BYOD,” Davis says. “Better appli-
cation performance will require
that application code be executed
closer to the network edge.”
However,mobiledevicesrep-
resentanewsourceofmalicious
code,Davisnotes.Soanothertrend
willbecloud-basedDDoSprotec-
tionandWebapplicationfirewallservices,“with
CDNspoisedtoplayakeyrolebecauseaCDN’s
distributedserverscanbeusedtofilteroutattacks
beforetheyreachtheclient’sdatacenter,”hesays.
Vendorsareincorporatingservicessuchas
DDoSmitigationandWeb application firewalls
togetherwithcontentdeliveryservices,Davis
notes.“Intermsofdeliverytomobiledevices,ven-
dorshaveworkedonservicesthatcanoptimize
networkperformanceaswellascontentoptimiza-
tionthathelpsadapthowcontentisdisplayedon
eachuniquemobiledevice,”hesays.
Goingforward,CDNserviceswillbeembedded
ineventhemostmundaneenter-
priseapplicationsasworkforces
increasinglydemandbusiness-
to-consumerlevelexperiences,
Grannansays.CDNis“just
anotheraspectofthecloudspec-
trum:storage,compute,hosting,
deliveryperformance,security,
andmore,”hesays.
Ingeneral,approachingaCDN
asadecentralizedcloudcompute
resourceisleadingtomoreefforts
tomaketheCDNmoreopenvia
APIs,Davissays.“Emerging
vendorsaredifferentiatingalong
theselines,butwithmobilespe-
cificallyinmind,”hesays.“There
aredifferentapproachesthatrangefromwhere
asolutionisimplemented—suchasintheradio
accessnetworkorinthemobiledeviceitself—and
atwhatlayer.”
Andvendorsaretakingstepstomakeiteasier
fororganizationstoacquiretechnology.”Some
CDNsareembracingclick-n-buy,freemiumand
appstoretacticstolowertheburdenofadoption,
andit’sworking,”Grannansays.“CDNsfrom
CloudflaretoAkamaiaretakingupthisapproach,
becausemuchofthetechnologytheysellhas
becomecommoditized,sogo-to-markettactics
havebecomeabigdifferentiator.”
Withmobiledevices
increasinglyused
toaccessonline
content,CDNpro-
vidersareworking
withmobileinfra-
structurevendorsto
pushworkloadsto
thenetworkedge.

9. digital
spotlıght Content Delivery Networks
networkworld.com March 2015
Key questions to ask as you evaluate
CDN products and services to ensure
your solution will measure up.
9
the
features
palette
Enterprises looking to deploy content delivery networks
(CDNs) need to consider a number of factors before
moving ahead. And they need to pose a series of
questions—both internally and to vendors—as they
evaluate CDN products and services to ensure they’re
making the best possible selections. Here are questions
to consider before embarking on a CDN journey:
B Y B O B v i o l i n o
SHUTTERSTOCK

10. networkworld.com March, 2015
digital
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10
Whatexactlyareourbusiness
requirementsforCDN?
That includes understanding the
geographic coverage you need,
what kind of service agility is
required, whether you need access
for mobile users, the budget for the
CDN initiative, etc., says Akshay
Sharma, research director at Gart-
ner. Many of these considerations
should then be turned into ques-
tions for vendors (some of which
are included below). But the point
is enterprises need to do a lot of
internal research prior to looking
for vendors.
What kind of performance levels are
we looking to achieve with CDN?
Enterprises should set a specific
performance target, says Mark
Grannan, an analyst at Forrester
Research covering application
development and delivery. For
example, a company may conclude
that “we need to shift 80% of our
users who currently experience
unacceptable load-times—say over
eight seconds—into ‘acceptable’ or
‘good’ categories,” Grannan says.
What specific features and
capabilities do we need?
Youhavetotakethelongview,says
JimDavis,senioranalyst,service
providersat451Research.“Will
IneedCDNfeaturesthataren’t
alreadythere?Ismyvendorwilling
toinvesttimeinaddingthosefea-
tures?DoIneedanddoesthevendor
havearobustsetofAPIsmyapplica-
tionscanleverage?”
You have to take the long view,
Will I need
CDN features
that aren’t
already
there?
Is my vendor willing to
invest time in adding
those features?
Jim Davis, senior analyst,
Service Providers at 451 Research.
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11. digital
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11
Cantheprovidermakeaproof-of-concept
argumentfortheirsolution?
When you approach CDN providers, “ask
for a proof-of-concept in a head-to-head
comparison with the other providers on
your short list,” Grannan says. “This
should help cut through the marketing-
speak and get down to brass tacks.”
Will the vendor let us do a test drive?
Beyondaproofofconcept,enterprisesshouldcon-
ducttrialsbeforemakingcontentdeliverydeci-
sions.“TheCDNspeedwillvarydependingon
thelocationofyourusers,whereyourWebsiteor
contentishosted,andotherfactors,suchastraf-
ficpatternsandthetechnicalconstructionofyour
Website,”Sharmasays.“Itisadvisabletoconduct
atrialbeforemakingsourcingdecisions.Busi-
nessesshouldrunacompetitivetrialandmeasure
howwelldifferentCDNservicescanmatch[their]
businessandoperationalmetrics.”
What kind of vertical industry experience
does the vendor have?
Before M-GO, a premium video-on-demand ser-
vice provider, selected Limelight as its CDN tech-
nology provider, it wanted to make sure potential
providers had experience in its industry. “Are
there any current customers using [the] CDN
service in a similar space as my company?” says
Jason Rojas, a principal engineer at M-GO.
How much will everything cost?
Thisisprobablyoneofthemostobviousquestions
onthelist,butitcertainlyneedstobeasked.CDNs
havemultiplecomponentsintermsofequipment,
services,maintenance,etc.,soitiscriticaltomake
sureyouareconsideringallthecostfactors. And
makesuretoaskhowcomparabletheprovider’s
deliveryandstoragecostsarewithotherCDNpro-
viders,Rojassays.
Also, consider what the payback of the CDN
solution might be, taking into consideration the
business problems you are solving, Davis says.
“Can better performance and security help boost
revenue or prevent revenue loss? Measure the
cost of the vendor’s solution against” return on
investment, he says.
Doweneedtoreassessthemarket
nowandthen?
Given how quickly the CDN and the
broader cloudmarketshaveevolvedinrecent
years, enterprises should reevaluate the market
at least every 18 months, Grannan says.
What is the vendor planning in terms of
future technology developments?
Rojassaystoaskif“thereareanyupcomingprod-
uctsortechnologiesyouaredevelopingthatcould
benefitourbusiness?”Givenhowfastthismarket
hasbeenchanging,there’snoreasontothinkit
isgoingtoslowdownanytimesoon,sogaininga
senseofwhat’stocomecanhelpyoubeproactive.
networkworld.com March 2015
Enterprises should reevaluate
the market at least every 18 months.
Mark Grannan, analyst at Forrester Research Inc.

12. digital
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12
lessons
learned:
Buyers talk
best
practices
M-GO, a premium video-on-demand
service provider that’s a joint venture
between Technicolor and DreamWorks
Animation, integrated CDN technology
from Limelight through a four-phased
approach that included discovery, test-
ing, launch and review, a strategy that
ensured successful deployment, says
M-GO principal engineer Jason Rojas.
B Y B O B v i o l i n o
networkworld.com March 2015

13. digital
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13
Content Delivery Networks
Inthediscoveryphasewhen
you’reevaluatingCDNproviders,
itiscriticaltoidentifyacoresetof
questionsthathomeinyourneeds,
saysRojas(seepreviousarticle).
Obviouslyitstartswithanassess-
mentoftheproblemyou’retry-
ingtosolve,butM-GOwentonto
examine:Whowillbeconsuming
thecontent?Whatkindofcontent
willbedelivered?Anddoesthe
CDNhaveapoint-of-presence(PoP)
withinthetargetedregionforits
consumers?
“Fromthosequestions,youmay
discoversomeoftheproblems
you’retryingtosolvemaynotneed
aCDNsolution,andinsteadcan
besolvedwithin-houseoptimiza-
tions,”Rojassays.“Thechallenges
thatdorequireaCDNmustbe
testedwithpotentialCDNcandi-
dates.Reachouttotheproviders
thatareafitandaskwhatitwould
takeforthemtotestyourcontenton
theirservice.”
Inmanycases,theCDNprovider
willgetanenterprisesetupwitha
professionalservicesteam,consist-
ingofasalesrepresentative,support
contactandsalesengineertoevalu-
atethetechnology,Rojassays.“This
teamwilltrytheirhardesttogetyou
intotheirservice,”hesays.“Priorto
reachingouttopotentialCDNs,con-
ductatesttobenchmarkyourcur-
rentset-uptocollectdatatocompare
theCDN’sperformanceagainst.”
Next, M-Go determined a test
plan for its content delivered by
the CDN. “Having answered the
important questions prior to get-
ting started and performing your
baseline tests, you should have
a good idea of how
the CDN will fit into
your content delivery,”
Rojas says.
Forsimplefile
delivery,imagesand
HTML-relateddocu-
ments,themostimpor-
digital
spotlıght
Prior to reaching out
to potential CDNs, conduct
a test to benchmark your current set-up
to collect data to compare the CDN’s
performance against.” jason rojas
networkworld.com March, 2015
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14. digital
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14
Content Delivery Networks
networkworld.com March 2015
tantmetricisthe“time-to-first-byte”(TTFB),Rojas
says.“Thiswillalsogiveyouanideaofthelatency
oftheCDN,”hesays.“Itisabestpracticetomea-
suretheTTFBwithsimplerequests,timingthe
downloadofthesmallobjectsfromgeographically
dispersedlocationsthatmakesenseforyourcon-
sumers.Ifpossible,performanindependenttestof
theCDNwhileyourCDNproviderisalsotesting.
Oncetestingiscomplete,comparetheresultswith
thebaseline.”
Alaunchplanshouldprovidetheoptionof
proceedingwiththeCDNdeploymentorrolling
backtoapreviousconfigurationifneeded,Rojas
says.“Therearemanywaystodesignalaunch
plan,dependentonbusinessneedsandthecontent
deliveredtoconsumers,”hesays.“Incorporateas
manynecessaryteammembersaspossible,includ-
ingtheCDNprovider’sprofessionalservicesteam,
alongwithyourcompany’soperationsstaffforeach
launchplantoensureaflawlessdeployment.”
Launching a CDN service takes time, but the
work doesn’t end with the launch, Rojas says.
You have to “regularly communicate with your
provider to discuss potential traffic spikes and
possible new deliverables,” he says. “Some CDN
providers will do configuration reviews of cur-
rent setups and introduce new products that can
benefit your business. This ongoing partner-
ship and dialogue helps M-GO get the most from
our CDN provider and keep our business oper-
ating like a well-oiled machine.”
Byfollowingthesepracticesandselectingthe
rightCDNpartners,“wewereabletobothlower
ourCDNstoragecostsandreduceourre-buffering
ratesduringstreamingplayback,Rojassays.
Easingin
CompaniesdeployingCDNsneedtoensurethat
theyunderstandthecapabilitiesofamodernCDN,
saysPaulKelsall,aU.K.-basedtechnologyconsul-
tantwhohelpscompaniesimplementCDNs,most
recentlyaretailerthathasdeployedasolution
fromFastly.
“Mosttechnologyplannerswouldsay,‘Oha
CDN,doesn’tthatserveupimagesforaWebsite?’
Actuallythatissuchanout-of-dateview,”Kelsall
says.“Today’sCDNcanserveupallofthecontent
onaWebpage[and]ensurethatthedatatobe
downloadediscompressedtominimizethedown-
loadtime.”
ItcanalsodothesameforanAPIend-point,
makedeployingreal-timestreamingvideoatriv-
ialaffair,andprovideasignificantmeasureofdis-
tributeddenialofserviceprotection,Kelsallsays.
“AfterunderstandingwhatyourCDNcando,it
isimportanttounderstandthatitcanbeimple-
mentedinphases,”Kelsallsays.Herecommends
startingsimple;forexample,cachingstaticcontent
suchasimagefiles. “Thereisalotofvalueindoing
this, andthenyoucanmoveontomoreadvanced
cachingofcontent.”
Theretailer’simplementationKelsallworked
onfollowedthestartsimpleapproach.“Butnow
weareusingtheCDNforthemainWebsite,the
mobilesite,contentforthemobileapp,contentfor
internationalWebsites,andareconsideringusing
theCDNforservingcloud-basedappswhichare
aimedatinternalemployees,”hesays.
ThegainsfromCDN“havebeenmorethan
expected,”Kelsallsays.“Nowmorethan96%[of
the]requeststotheWebsiteneverhittheWeb
servers;theCDNhandlestherequest.Theuser
experienceisimproved.Wesavemoneyonnet-
workbandwidth,wesavesignificantamountsof
moneyonlicensesontheappservers,andbestof
allwecannoweasilyscaletomeetthedemandsof
eventslikeBlackFridaywithoutmissingabeat.”
Today’s CDN can
serve up all of
the content on
a Web page
[and] ensure that the data to be
downloaded is compressed to
minimize the download time.”
‘‘Paul kelsall, Technology Consultant

15. networkworld.com March, 2015
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Content Delivery Networks :: MARCH 2015 Resources
SPONSOREDBY: SPONSOREDBY:
15