CDN Developments for November Continued
We’ve already done a round up of CDN developments for November, however it has proved to be a very popular month for CDN news, so we’re going to run through some extra developments that have been taken place in the industry.
As with most of the most important CDN developments, these content delivery network updates tend to revolve around the development of new content delivery network technologies, the expansion of CDN network infrastructure with new points of presence, or improvements in CDN security technology.
So without further ado, here’s out next instalment of CDN developments for November 2018.
Amazon CloudFront CDN Security Improved with NAGRA’s NexGuard Solution
The first of the CDN developments we’ll look at in this article comes in the form of a partnership between NAGRA and Amazon. NAGRA is a Switzerland based media and communications company that focuses on video delivery and security and they have integrated their NexGuard watermarking solution with the Amazon Cloudfront Content Delivery Network. The combined solution was commercially deployed by a major Hollywood studio, enabling the content owner to stream its video content to viewers across the world in an efficient and highly scalable way, while securing robust security and traceability of its premium assets.
“We’re excited to expand our usage of Amazon Web Services and provide the added layer of security and traceability now required by content owners for the protection of premium content in pre-release and direct-to-consumer scenarios,” says Harrie Tholen, VP Sales, NAGRA Anti-Piracy & NexGuard.
“With Cloudfront and its Lambda@Edge component, NAGRA is able to offer session-based forensic watermarking to content owners in a highly scalable and secure way. Using secure processing at the edge, we can now service millions of users across the world with a reduction in end-to-end latency.”
They key benefit of the integration is that it allows for the use of session-based watermarking when streaming video content to any device (PC, tablet, connected TV, game console, etc.) without requiring any change in the player applications. That platform supports Apple HLS, MPEG-DASH, and all popular DRM methods, including NAGRA PRM, meaning that content owners can leverage any number of popular technologies to ensure their content is protected.
Content Delivery Network Issues Cause Red Dead Redemption 2 Outage
Red Dead Redemption 2 has taken the world by storm, proving to be a hugely popular game that is available on Playstation and XBOX. However, its launch has not been without its hiccups.
A beta for the online portion of the game has run into problems that to problems with the game’s content delivery network, operated by Akamai. The game’s servers appears to be struggling to keep up with demand, causing excessive downtime for players.
The Rockstar support team have acknowledged that there is a technical problem, announcing in a tweet that “we are aware of an issue affecting Xbox One Ultimate Edition players not being able to access Red Dead Online. Please be patient as we investigate this issue.”
As the multiplayer portion of the game edges closer to official releases, Rockstar will no doubt want to ensure that their content delivery network is properly able to cope with what will inevitably be huge demand.
Ben Dahl Becomes Managing Director at Signal Peak
While most of the CDN developments we tend to cover revolve around the development of new content delivery network services and technologies, CDN developments can often relate to the running of CDN providers and how they manage their future strategies.
One such development that took place last month involves Ben Dahl, formerly a partner at Pelion Venture Partners, who is moving to become managing director at Signal Peak.
Signal Peak is a leading Salt Lake City-based venture capital firm. Ben Dahl has a huge amount of experience when it comes to venture capitalism and entrepreneurship. His skills and expertise will surely prove invaluable to Signal Peak as they seek to build on their existing successes.
Ben Dahl made his name assisting world leading companies including CloudFlare, the popular content delivery network provider. His new role at Signal Peak could prove to be a vehicle for further investment in the fast growing content delivery network market.
“Signal Peak Ventures has established a reputation for investing in companies that not only represent the best and brightest innovators, but also deliver outstanding returns to investors,” said Dahl. “I am excited to add to the solid foundation Ron, Scott, and Brandon have built. Entrepreneurs and limited partners that have worked with them give them strong endorsements for their work ethic and integrity. We are eager and dedicated to continue helping passionate entrepreneurs build disruptive technology companies that deliver enduring value.”
“Ben is a rising star in the venture capital community, and we are thrilled to have him join our team. His addition will further enhance our capacity to build relationships with great entrepreneurs and deliver top tier returns to our investors,” said Brandon Tidwell, Founding Partner and Managing Director of Signal Peak Ventures. “Ben’s decade plus of investment experience and network of co-investors and entrepreneurs adds to and strengthens the distinct capabilities of our partnership.”
Barbri to Partner with Blackbird and Microsoft Azure
As has been proved time and again, some of the most notable CDN developments in recent years revolve around the deployment of content delivery network video services. One of the other latest CDN developments follows this rule, with Barbri, the world’s largest law examinations preparation company, choosing to leverage Blackbird, a workstation experience in the cloud solution created by Forbidden Technologies, to power their cloud video editing services. Furthermore, this partnership will be underpinned by content storage and processing provided by CDN provider Microsoft Azure.
Blackbird enables secure, lightning-fast, frame-accurate editing and distribution of video content in the cloud by anyone, anytime, anywhere on any device using bandwidth as low as 2Mb per second. This will help ensure that Barbri customers will have access to blistering performance with no downtime.
Telecom Fiji Customers to Enjoy Enhanced Netflix Viewing
As Netflix and other streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video and Hulu become more and more popular, we are increasingly seeing these companies adopt CDN developments that improve video delivery speeds and enhance the end user experience.
Netflix in particular has developed its own Open Connect Program. According to Netlfix, the Open Connect Program aims “to provide our millions of Netflix subscribers the highest-quality viewing experience possible. We achieve this goal by partnering with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to deliver our content more efficiently. We partner with hundreds of ISPs to localize substantial amounts of traffic with Open Connect Appliance embedded deployments, and we have an open peering policy at our interconnection locations.”
The Open Connect Program is essentially Netflix’s own content delivery network, and many ISPs have been taking advantage of it to ensure their customers get the best possible access to Netflix services.
Now, the latest company to leverage the Netflix Open Connect Program is Telecom Fiji, one of Fiji’s largest telecoms provider. Over the past six months, traffic to Netflix on the Telecom Fiji network has increased more than 20 times. It’s therefore easy to see why the company is happy to be the first company in Fiji to sign up to the scheme.
“We are grateful to Netflix for this opportunity and for hosting their content locally within Fiji with Telecom. With Netflix content servers now locally hosted within Fiji, our customers will now have a much better quality of experience, especially in terms of watching High Definition (HD) and Ultra HD movies,” said Charles Goundar, Chief Executive Officer, Telecom Fiji.
“With the rollout of our high-speed broadband services and in particular Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) technology, having premium content such as Netflix locally hosted means customers get the full benefit of the high speed of the connection,” said Mr Goundar.
November CDN Developments Part 2 Round Up
As seems to be the trend, content delivery network video services have led the pack in this month’s CDN developments. With more and more companies leveraging content delivery network video solutions, the ability for end users to stream video quickly and efficiently is growing tremendously around the world, from more developed regions all the way to smaller areas like we saw with Fiji Telecoms partnership with the Netflix Open Connect Program.
As content delivery network video demand goes from strength to strength, it is inevitable that we will see many more CDN developments that revolve around CDN video performance in the future.