[Strategy Analytics]: How Operators Could Succeed in Content Distribution?

A new report by Nitesh Patel [pictured], Director, Wireless Media Strategies, Strategy Analytics identifies "strong ambition and alignment with operator assets, as two fundamental requirements for operators to successfully define their position in the evolving digital content distribution landscape. Additionally, evidence from successful operator initiatives, particularly those from Japan and Korea, indicates that targeting consumer appetite for local or regional content, and the acquisition of exclusive rights to compelling content both as significant for success.

AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV, Bharti Airtel’s launch of music and video streaming services, Singtel’s video-on-demand service HOOQ, and Verizon’s launch of Go90 highlights a recent significant shift in operator ambition with respect to digital content distribution, particularly related to video. 

Strong demand for video content, particularly on mobile devices, has prompted mobile operators such as AT&T, Bharti Airtel, T-Mobile USA, Singtel, and Verizon, among others, to seek a more aggressive position in digital video delivery, despite previous failed efforts in content distribution. 

However, T-Mobile USA’s Binge On [see "YouTube vs. T-Mobile: Do Customers Prefer Price over Quality?" - here] signals an alternative enablement approach, leveraging network assets to provide optimization and zero-rated access to video content streamed over its network. Either way, operators must align their content strategy with both their ambition and assets"

See "Strategy Analytics: Strong Ambition and Asset Alignment Fundamental to Operator Success in Content Distribution" - here.

[ABI]: VIdeo QoE (CDN, Monitoring and Analytics) Market to Reach $477M by 2020

A new study by Eric Abbruzzese, Research Analyst, and Sam Rosen [pictured], VP of Consumer, ABI Research finds that "Content Delivery Network (CDN) Balancing and OTT Monitoring, as well as Real User Monitoring (RUM) and Application Performance Monitoring (APM) technologies used to measure video services are growing, with associated revenues estimated to reach US$477 million in 2020.

While the video analytics market as a whole is rather mature, the desire for more granular, user-level data led to a shift in focus from QoS metrics to QoE services and data .. the increasing complexity of the IP video and OTT content markets will continue to drive both new and existing providers, operators and content owners to pursue deeper analytics capabilities to fully understand the experience of the end user.

Whether mobile or wireline, operators and service providers are focused on minimizing content start times and buffering delays while maximizing video quality and stream reliability .. Real-time, granular, user-level data streams allow the opportunity for a deeper understanding of not only how a network is performing but also how individual users are affected by network idiosyncrasies. Automated load balancing and network optimization platforms will help inform future business decisions, from content licensing to CDN usage.”

See "Growing IP and OTT Video Delivery Demands and User Experience Focus Drives Network Optimization and Analytics Services" - here.

Akamai Expands HTTP/2 Deployment

Akamai Technologies announced that it is now "..actively working with more than 150 customers to deliver HTTP/2-enabled websites and is expanding its HTTP/2 program to all customers using qualifying products to deliver TLS encrypted web content.

HTTP/2 represents the first major update to the HTTP network protocol in nearly 20 years. Although websites have dramatically evolved during this time, HTTP, the underlying protocol of the Web, has not. Through features and capabilities such as multiplexing and concurrency, header compression, server push, support for the latest cipher suites, and an overall reduction in development complexity, HTTP/2 is intended to significantly improve the performance and security/privacy of today’s Web.

More than 70 percent of requests on Akamai’s CDN currently come from HTTP/2 compliant browsers; however, some older browser versions will continue to be used for the foreseeable future. Therefore, Akamai’s implementation of HTTP/2 has been designed to use real-time network and end-user intelligence to dynamically apply the appropriate performance optimizations to ensure the best performance for each user. In addition, we believe Akamai is well positioned to offer the tools and intelligence required to take full advantage of the move to HTTP/2. For example, easy‑to‑use, self-service and highly granular configurability allows customers to control the deployment of HTTP/2, while built-in monitoring and reporting helps measure the impact"

HTTP/2 attempts to solve many of the shortcomings and inflexibilities of HTTP/1.1. Its many benefits include:

• Multiplexing and concurrency: Several requests can be sent in rapid succession on the same TCP connection, and responses can be received out of order - eliminating the need for multiple connections between the client and the server
   
• Stream dependencies: the client can indicate to the server which of the resources are more important than the others
   
• Header compression: HTTP header size is drastically reduced
   
• Server push: The server can send resources the client has not yet requested

See "Akamai Helps Drive Adoption Of Faster And More Secure Web Protocol" - here.

ALU to Make Velocix CDN Elastic Next Year

Alcatel-Lucent announced it is set to "boost the performance of its cloud-based IP video storage and content delivery technologies with the introduction of its enhanced Cloud DVR platform and the new Elastic Content Delivery Network. This will allow service providers to manage network capacity more dynamically as they deal with ever-growing customer demand.

.. Alcatel-Lucent’s Velocix content delivery network (CDN) technologies allow service providers to optimize video content for delivery on any device. With functionality moved to the cloud, the Elastic CDN allows resources to be allocated more flexibly, when and where they are needed. 

During a major sporting event or incident, the provider can dynamically provision virtualized machines in minutes rather than weeks or months and cache popular content closer to users to better manage video traffic over the networks. Once demand has slowed, extra capacity can be released and used on other applications or services. Elastic CDN will be made commercially available in 2016.

See "Alcatel-Lucent enhances delivery of video content with introduction of Elastic content delivery network and cloud-based DVR storage" - here.

SoftBank to Offer Fastly CDN in Japan

Fastly Data Center

Fastly announced that it is partnering with "SoftBank Corp. to offer Fastly’s CDN services in Japan. 

Under the partnership, Fastly CDN services will be managed and operated for Japanese customers by Fastly. SoftBank will provide the primary sales route to market, with implementation and support delivered jointly in collaboration between Fastly and SoftBank. The Fastly Solution is available immediately via SoftBank to companies in Japan, and directly via Fastly to companies globally.

Japan's national Internet has historically had a single point of interconnection in Tokyo. To ensure the level of performance and resiliency expected from a CDN, Fastly has deployed a second POP in-country. The next logical point of interconnect is located in Osaka, where networks and enterprises have built secondary facilities in order to reduce network latency and to provide redundancy in the event of a catastrophic event affecting Tokyo". 

Fastly offers an "Accelerate anything" content distribution solution:

• Static content - Cache static content — including images, CSS, and JavaScript — to ensure a faster response and download time for your end users. Fastly is built on Varnish, and its architecture is designed to cache entire webpages, handling traffic even more efficiently.
   
• Event-driven content - We’re the only CDN that caches frequently changing and unpredictable content. “Event-driven” content is static for some unknown period of time, and then changes. Examples include wiki pages, news headlines, stock prices, sports scores, inventory, and APIs.
   
• Dynamic Site Acceleration (DSA) - Fastly optimizes delivery from origin over long distances. Through the use of network and protocol optimization, along with mechanisms such as Origin Shield, Fastly’s DSA offering is capable of transporting dynamic content over long distances with efficient speed.

See "Fastly Partners with SoftBank to Enter Japanese Market" - here.

CDN Deployments [352]: Wind [Italy] Selected ALU's Velocix (Joins Telus, Oi and TWC)

Alcatel-Lucent announced it is to "..provide Italy’s Wind Telecomunicazioni with content delivery network technology to support the launch of new video and TV services for its fixed and mobile subscribers. The provision of Alcatel-Lucent’s Velocix Content Delivery Network platform will enable Wind’s customers to manage video traffic on its network, providing an optimized experience for customers regardless of the device they use to access content". 

".. Alcatel-Lucent will deliver its Velocix 7810 Digital Media Delivery Platform, the market leading on-net Content Delivery Network system, used by some of the largest operators in the world, including Telus, Oi and Time Warner Cable, among others"

Related post - "Who is Using ALU's Velocix Solution?" - here.

Wind had 21.6M subscribers at the end of 2014. 

See "Alcatel-Lucent content delivery network technology selected by Wind to support its launch of premium video and TV services in Italy" - here.

Sky Italy Uses Akamai's Managed CDN for VoD

Akamai Technologies announced that "Sky Italia has selected Akamai's Aura Managed Content Delivery Network (MCDN) solution to achieve maximum control and the highest quality of service of its online content including live and on-demand video. With the Aura MCDN, which provides Sky with dedicated CDN capabilities that are maintained by Akamai, Sky can flexibly scale to support its capacity needs of 100's Gbps and beyond. The new content delivery architecture has allowed Sky to also improve download speed by 25 percent and reduce bandwidth cost by 10 percent.

With the biggest over-the-top video audience in Italy, Sky Go (2.35 million users) and Sky on Demand (1.4million) are included with Sky's subscription services. Because of the growing importance of its online channel, Sky adopted an architecture based on multiple Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to obtain maximum control over its delivery capabilities at all times, even during high on-line traffic peaks, such as major sports events.

Integrated with Akamai's Media Delivery Services, the Aura MCDN provides Sky the architectural infrastructure it sought. Because the Aura MCDN delivers more than 30 percent of traffic on behalf of Sky, the company is able to manage traffic peaks that have reached up to 250Gbps. At the same time, Sky has noticed a 25 percent average improvement in the download speed of its content. This translates into a higher quality of service for its subscribers. In addition, Sky has reduced its bandwidth costs by 10 percent because of the ability to direct portions of its traffic to less expensive telecommunication networks".

See "Akamai, Sky Italia Address Rising Consumer Expectations for Online Video" - here

Mobile Edge Computing Group Formed

The ETSI organization announced recently that "The first meeting of ETSI’s newly created Mobile-Edge Computing (MEC) Industry Specification Group (ISG) took place on 2-4 December 2014, hosted by Nokia Networks in Munich. 

The group has attracted 24 member and participant  organizations [here], including network operators, vendors, technology suppliers and Content Delivery Network (CDN) providers.

.. MEC is a natural development in the evolution of mobile base stations and the convergence of IT and telecommunications networking. Mobile-edge Computing will enable new vertical business segments and services for consumers and enterprise customers. Use cases include:

• video analytics
• location services
• Internet-of-Things (IoT)
• augmented reality
• optimized local content distribution and
• data caching

See "Executive Briefing – Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) Initiative" - here and "Mobile-Edge Computing – Introductory Technical White Paper" - here. 

See "New ETSI Mobile-Edge Computing Industry Specification Group starts work" - here.

Akamai and Juniper Demo NFV/SDN Based CDN

Akamai Technologies and Juniper Networks demonstrated an "..Elastic Content Delivery Network (CDN) system designed to enable network operators to address network scalability challenges driven by the rapid increase in video traffic.
 

The proof-of-concept demonstration will leverage Akamai's virtualized Aura Licensed CDN (LCDN) software and Juniper Networks® Contrail Controller for software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) to dynamically scale up and down network resources to support content spikes resulting from the broadcast of large events. The technology is also designed to accelerate service creation for service providers utilizing CDNs to launch innovative multiscreen video services that help drive subscriber acquisition and loyalty.

Akamai's Aura Licensed CDN (LCDN)

.. Akamai is collaborating with Juniper Networks to demonstrate the industry's first on-network Elastic CDN. Unlike previous approaches which required dedicated hardware, long lead times and extensive planning to add capacity, the Elastic CDN solution running on virtualization platforms leverages Juniper Networks Contrail to quickly configure virtual network resources within a virtual CDN, and allows additional caching capacity to be deployed in minutes instead of weeks. The Elastic CDN is highly distributed and virtually networked to enable efficient use of resources. Operating in an OpenStack environment, the combined solution is designed to help reduce time and cost associated with adding new caching capacity to the network, decreasing both capital and operational expense".

See "Juniper Networks and Akamai Technologies Demonstrate Elastic CDN Solution Over Virtualization Platforms" - here.

du [UAE] Upgraded its CDN for IOS8 Updates

du (UAE] announced that "Following proactive steps taken by du to ensure a seamless upgrade experience to iOS 8 for Apple customers, du has noted that Apple traffic has, for the first time on its network, reached a new high – topped only by customers’ consumption of online video. Compared to a regular day, iOS 8 upgrades caused an increase of 15 times in App traffic upgrades since its release at 9pm on 17 September 2014.

In anticipation of the increased traffic iOS 8 upgrades would cause, du upgraded its Internet Content Delivery Network to avoid network congestion, and provide customers with the best possible experience.

[related post: "DPI Deployments: du [UAE] Selected Procera" - here] 

On du’s Fixed network, its Burj Khalifa PoP (Point of Presence), which services the area around the Burj, handled the highest volume of update downloads. However, many users chose to update using du’s Mobile network, enabling their devices as a Personal Hotspot/Tether, given the WiFi requirements of the iOS 8 upgrade.

Saleem AlBalooshi [pictured], Executive Vice President - Network Development & Operations in du, said: “iPhone users comprise a significant portion of our customer base, and we were able to predict this high volume of traffic in advance, given the popularity of Apple’s smartphones. As ever, our focus was on ensuring that our customers enjoyed a seamless experience in updating their devices, and so we undertook measures to bolster our network and provide a smooth, hassle-free iOS 8 download for our customers across the UAE.”

At the end of Q2, 2014 du had 7.1M subscribers, a 45% market share.

See "Apple traffic on du network reaches new high after seamless iOS 8 upgrade experience" - here.

Nokia Adds BroadPeak's CDN to its Base Station Applications

Nokia announced a number of new features, including 3rd party application extending its Liquid Applications:

• Video Orchestration provides a new multimedia experience at special events, including race tracks, football stadiums, and fairs. This enables new video services, for example, streaming a live feed from inside a racing car, in real time, to fans at the trackside.

• Real-time Analytics capture user and service performance data to provide operators with new real-time insights into user experience for optimizing content delivery
  
  
• Nokia Networks has recently signed an AppFactory agreement with Broadpeak [see "StarHub Deploys Broadpeak CDN (w/ HLS Support)" - here] adding the France-based vendor to its list of 3rd-party application developers and collaborators. Broadpeak’s nanoCDN application will be developed for Liquid Applications to extend content delivery network capabilities to the base station.

• New LTE Quality of Service (QoS) features will allow operators to better manage network resources as well as high quality services for users. A nominal bit rate can now be provided for users at the cell edge experiencing poor radio conditions, for an improved level of service. LTE’s dedicated bearer functionality is also exploited to deliver high-quality and prioritized streaming services for third parties, such as Content Delivery Network providers.

See "Nokia Networks introduces advanced content delivery solutions, extends Liquid Applications" - here.

Akamai Expands CDN to the RAN with Saguna

     

Saguna Networks expands its base-station caching technology, CODS, with CDN-Extend allowing it to participate in a CDN network.

According to the company, "It is a big step forward towards achieving our goal of creating an Open-RAN platform enabling any server-side application to run inside the RAN. CDN-Extend enables 3rd party CDNs to operate inside the mobile base station".

Saguna provides its technology to base station vendors on OEM basis (see "Rumors: NSN's Liquid Applications Uses Saguna's Technology - here and "Saguna's Optimization and Monetization Technology to be Deployed in 2014 - here).

One of Saguna's investors, Xenia, announced earlier this week (here, Hebrew) that the company raised $2M from a "strategic US investor, a leading player in distributed computing and communications networks, a financial investor from China and some of the owners", based on post-money valuation of $27M.

The first CDN provider partnering with Saguna is Akamai.

The company announced a ".. joint demonstration with Akamai .. showcasing the first Content Delivery Network (CDN) that operates from within the Mobile Base Station .. Getting content as close as possible to the mobile user is crucial to reducing round-trip-time (RTT) and making accurate performance tuning decisions, in order to improve the mobile Internet user experience. Radio network edge placement, in concert with the CDN serving the content, is especially beneficial when trying to optimize HTTPS content, since this type of content cannot be cached or optimized inside the mobile network using standard “transparent” caching methods or optimization techniques".

In the demonstration, Akamai’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) is integrated as a server-side application running on the Saguna CODS Open-RAN platform, which operates inside the mobile base station. Using Saguna CODS CDN-Extend, Akamai’s CDN can cache content for delivery as close as possible to mobile users at the mobile network edge".

See "Saguna and Akamai Showcase the World’s First Content Delivery Network Operating from the Mobile Base Station" - here.

[MarketsandMarkets]: CDN Market to Grow at 27% CAGR

 
A recent report by MarketsandMarkets finds that "CDN adoption is increasing due to its increasing implementation globally specially in North America (NA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) regions. 

The media and entertainment vertical has the highest share in the overall content delivery networks (CDN) market. Other than the media and entertainment vertical, CDN has a wide portfolio in advertising, gaming, e-commerce, ISP, mobile operators, consumer electronics, online music retailers, and healthcare, higher education, and government verticals.

The Content Delivery Networks market is expected to grow from $3.71 billion in 2014 to $12.16 billion by 2019, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 26.8%. The APAC region is growing rapidly with a CAGR of 38.2%, from 2014 to 2019

See "Content Delivery Networks (CDN) Market (Delivery Technologies, Hardware, Analytics, Monitoring, Encoding, Transparent Caching, DRM, CMS, OVP) – Trends, Geographical Analysis & Worldwide Market Forecasts (2014 – 2019)" - here.

Apple's CDN Goes Live; Increases Capacity 10x

 
Dan Rayburn [pictured] reports to Streaming Media that "Recently, Apple’s CDN has gone live in the U.S. and Europe and the company is now delivering some of their own content, directly to consumers. In addition, Apple has interconnect deals in place with multiple ISPs, including Comcast and others, and has paid to get direct access to their networks .. From ISPs I have spoken with, they tell me Apple has put a massive amount of capacity in place, with many saying that Apple has more than 10x the capacity they are using today, all ready to go."

[related post: "CDN Helps ISP to Manage iOS5 Update Traffic" - here]

"While Apple will probably never completely move away from third-party CDNs, like Netflix did, they will rely less on third-party CDNs over time, just like we have seen with Microsoft, YouTube and others. Level 3 will be able to make up for lost CDN business as they are one of the vendors that Apple is buying wavelengths, IP transit, fiber and other infrastructure services from .. It is also important to point out that decisions around who (Apple/Akamai/Level 3) delivers what (updates, streaming, apps, radio) to whom (ISP customers, different devices etc.) are under Apple’s control"

See "Apple’s CDN Now Live: Has Paid Deals With ISPs, Massive Capacity In Place" - here.

Verizon Digital Media CDN (EdgeCast) Expands Globally

Verizon Digital Media Services announced that "Since its acquisition of EdgeCast Networks [see "Verizon Acquires EdgeCast; Will it Serve DT and TeliaSonera?" - here] .. Verizon Digital Media Services has rapidly expanded the capacity of the Verizon EdgeCast CDN, adding more than 20 new points of presence, or POPs, in major cities around the world since January. These cities include Warsaw, Stockholm, Milan, Vienna, Melbourne, Helsinki, Kaohsiung, Batam, Jakarta and Sao Paulo. The company also expanded its presence with additional POPs in many cities already served, including London, Madrid, Paris and Amsterdam. These additions offer customers even greater connectivity and performance within these markets.

.. Each new POP is built securely on Verizon Digital Media Services’ latest generation of delivery servers, with pre-built dedicated space for rapid expansion. The POPs have multiple diverse connections into last-mile networks and are provisioned to support the full suite of Verizon EdgeCast services".

See "Verizon Digital Media Services Expands Global Content Delivery Network" - here.

How does Netflix Use Big Data to Improve QoE?

Nirmal Govind, Director, Streaming Science & Algorithms, Netflix, explains how "we use big data for deep analysis and predictive algorithms to help provide the best experience for our members ..  the types of problems we're solving [I am quoting 2 of the items]

• Understanding the impact of QoE on user behavior

To improve the streaming experience, we look at QoE metrics that are likely to have an impact on user behavior. One metric of interest is the rebuffer rate, which is a measure of how often playback is temporarily interrupted while more data is downloaded from the server to replenish the local buffer on the client device. Another metric, bitrate, refers to the quality of the picture that is served/seen - a very low bitrate corresponds to a fuzzy picture. There is an interesting relationship between rebuffer rate and bitrate. Since network capacity is limited, picking too high of a bitrate increases the risk of hitting the capacity limit, running out of data in the local buffer, and then pausing playback to refill the buffer. What’s the right tradeoff?

• Determining what movies and shows to cache on the edge servers based on member viewing behavior [see "Netflix CDN Customers have More Fun" - here]

A set of big data problems also exists on the content delivery side. Open Connect is Netflix's own content delivery network that allows ISPs to directly connect to Netflix servers at common internet exchanges, or place a Netflix-provided storage appliance (cache) with Netflix content on it at ISP locations. The key idea here is to locate the content closer (in terms of network hops) to our members to provide a great experience.

One of several interesting problems here is to optimize decisions around content caching on these appliances based on the viewing behavior of the members served. With millions of members, a large catalog, and limited storage capacity, how should the content be cached to ensure that when a member plays a particular movie or show, it is being served out of the local cache/appliance?

See "Optimizing the Netflix Streaming Experience with Data Science" - here.

Qwilt: "Open Transparent Caching" vs. Content Providers' "Black Boxes"

Some quotes from a GigaOm post with Qwilt's CEO, Alon Maor [pictured]:

• Since launching Qwilt in 2011, I’ve seen online video grow to be one of the hardest challenges network operators face today. In my role as CEO, I’ve overseen Qwilt’s engagements with more than 150 network operator customers worldwide - some of whom are experiencing 90% growth of video year over year which translates to 60% growth of their overall internet traffic [see "[Sandvine] NA Cord-Cutters Stream 3 Hours of Video a Day" - here]. This presents not only a tremendous opportunity, but also its own set of challenges.
   
• .. content providers like Netflix and Google now regularly publish ISP rankings that expose both the best and worst performing ISPs by region .. Ultimately, these rankings ensure accountability lies with the network operator instead of the content provider when the consumer’s experience is unsatisfactory [not always .. - see "Netflix - Speed to Comcast Customers Continue to Surge" - here] and network performance is the cause.
   
• A number of US cable operators, including Mediacom Communications [here], have deployed transparent caching technology to leverage the value of caching video deep in their networks, close to consumers.

• Transparent caching deployed inside operator networks embraces an open architecture. This infrastructure is transparent, universal, neutral, trusted and secure. This open architecture stands in contrast to the closed cache systems operated by some content providers today which appear as black boxes to network operators [see "Netflix CDN Customers have More Fun" - here].
  
  These closed caches systems address only one content provider at a time and, therefore, reduce the ability of operators to optimize traffic on their networks. So, for example, content streamed from Content Provider A will not be cached by Content Provider G’s closed cache.
   
• Content providers are considering further steps to obscure their content. Indeed, last November, Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman said, “Encrypting everything could end government censorship for a decade.”

See "Will cable operators, CDNs and ISPs make or break the future of online streaming video?" - here.

Business Intelligence: Akamai (32%), Limelight (20%) Lead the NA CDN Traffic

A new report by Mark Hoelzel [pictured], Research Analyst, Business Intelligence, finds that:

• More and more video traffic is flowing through this new infrastructure [CDN]: The content delivery networks or CDNs will collectively account for nearly three-fifths of consumer Internet traffic in the U.S. in 2014.
   
• Pricing is complicated: Pricing for CDNs and for the more specialized transit providers that optimize video delivery, balancing performance and cost, varies a great deal. These players offer plans based on factors like bandwidth, time of day, and volume. Bandwidth is the key factor in pricing, but far from the only one. And special agreements dictate quality parameters.
   
• Which is why more and more content providers are building their own CDNs: Google and Netflix have these in place, and rumors are building that Apple is also assembling its own infrastructure.
    
  
   
• Peering agreements are the big point of contention: The price of connecting video pipes directly has become a fraught issue in the video world. Netflix is striking up agreements with ISPs [Verizon, Comcast] to guarantee video performance, but at the same time crying foul that they have to do so. Regulators seem undecided on whether this is a good practice. We dive into the hard business decisions driving the debate.
   
• All the sides — content providers, transit providers, and ISPs — have misrepresented the mechanics and economics of the digital video industry in the context of "net neutrality." We expect more peering agreements that balance the needs of both — and the consumer. The disputes over video streaming fees boil down to who should pay for the exploding popularity of streaming video, and at what quality of service.

See "The Online Video Ecosystem Explained: The Main Players And Conflicts In A Fast-Growing Industry" - here.

[Research]: CDN Enabled Sites are Slower!

A new research by Radware reveals that ".. while 75% of the top 100 retail websites employ a Content Delivery Network (CDN), the median home page takes a full second longer to become interactive than the median page that does not use a CDN .. Radware’s latest research shows that the median time to interact (TTI) for CDN enabled sites was 5.7 seconds compared to the median TTI of 4.7 for non-CDN websites".

Kent Alstad [pictured], Radware's VP of Acceleration explains: “This finding should not be interpreted as a criticism of content delivery networks. Instead, it should create awareness that CDNs address just one aspect of the performance problem. Web pages today are bigger and more complicated than ever, and CDNs can only partially mitigate this growth and complexity. Site owners need to be aware that there are performance issues caused by the pages themselves, and these performance issues require additional solutions.”

Other key findings:

1. The median web page has slowed down by 47% since 2012.
2. The median page takes 5.4 seconds to become interactive. 
3. The top 100 sites are slower than the top 500.
4. Most sites fail to leverage best practices for optimizing images.

See "New Radware Research Reveals eRetailers that use a Content Delivery Network Experience Slower Page Load Times than eRetailers that do not" - here.

Akamai Enhances Video Streaming with MPEG-DASH and HDS

Akamai Technologies announced that it is "adding native support for the emerging Motion Picture Experts Group-Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH) and HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) formats for live and linear streaming content. By accepting these additional formats into its globally distributed entry points, Akamai expects to offer its customers greater flexibility to reach an ever-increasing array of connected devices.
The new capability - 

• is designed to allow event producers to send their streams directly into Akamai ingest servers via nearby entry points, minimizing the chance of quality loss through local network issues and congestion.
• Akamai is working with encoder vendors to qualify their offerings for compatibility, and 
• has added DASH support to its Adaptive Media Player. 

This three-pronged approach is intended to help users more easily stream live events at higher quality to audiences worldwide.

Elemental Technologies is the first partner to be qualified by Akamai for direct DASH and HDS ingest. Their Elemental® Live and Elemental® Server products have been configured and tested in an effort to ensure that streaming content in these new formats is securely and efficiently transferred through Akamai's ingest points.

See "Akamai Announces Native MPEG-DASH and HDS Support for Live Video Workflows" - here.