I would have thought CDNs are a dead model today... being fundamentally more useful for static content, and with software service architecture moving fundamentally but steadily toward arbitrary infrastructure/cloud friendliness, they'd be a poor long term investment.
Verizon Is Acquiring Content Delivery Network EdgeCast For More Than $350M
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Re: Verizon Is Acquiring Content Delivery Network EdgeCast For More Than $350M
#12I would have thought CDNs are a dead model today... being fundamentally more useful for static content, and with software service architecture moving fundamentally but steadily toward arbitrary infrastructure/cloud friendliness, they'd be a poor long term investment.
No way. CDNs do a lot more than mirror static content (which is valuable anyway), Edge locations for streaming video are incredibly valuable for one.
Re: Verizon Is Acquiring Content Delivery Network EdgeCast For More Than $350M
#13I know some awesome guys at EdgeCast. Great job, congrats.
Re: Verizon Is Acquiring Content Delivery Network EdgeCast For More Than $350M
#14I would have thought CDNs are a dead model today... being fundamentally more useful for static content, and with software service architecture moving fundamentally but steadily toward arbitrary infrastructure/cloud friendliness, they'd be a poor long term investment.
No way. CDNs do a lot more than mirror static content (which is valuable anyway), Edge locations for streaming video are incredibly valuable for one.
Heh, funny you mention that. Video has this wow factor that's undeserved: it's really nothing special, just some higher processing, storage and bandwidth requirements.
Funnily enough, three years ago I actually visited Edgecast's main office in LA on behalf of a former employer, a well known global video solutions provider. We discussed global partnership for them offering our streaming solutions but didn't wind up partnering with them as there was little commercial justification in handing them our technology, effectively commodifying our admittedly few but still important USPs.
As for Edgecast, I seem to recall that their delivery speed to Asia was particularly weak. US companies should think twice before trusting other US companies to deliver their content to the rest of the world. It's a strangely routed internet out there...
Re: Verizon Is Acquiring Content Delivery Network EdgeCast For More Than $350M
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
What incentive does Verizon have to spend money to track users across domains? Ultimately, Verizon exists to make money for their shareholders. ISPs do have to do things HN readers don't like to make the government happy (like comply with secret warrants), but they are not legally required to buy CDNs to make some sort of user tracking easier. The NSA can wiretap a CDN as easily as they can wiretap Verizon. Perhaps V…
i'm not implying that's the reason they bought them - of course it isn't - just pointing out what they can do with their new superpowers.
Given Verizon's high penetration of the ISP market in the US, they have much better sources of traffic patterns anyway, and can link that with direct billing information.
Re: Verizon Is Acquiring Content Delivery Network EdgeCast For More Than $350M
#16I would have thought CDNs are a dead model today... being fundamentally more useful for static content, and with software service architecture moving fundamentally but steadily toward arbitrary infrastructure/cloud friendliness, they'd be a poor long term investment.
CDNs are an incredibly interesting field.
Sure, traditional static content CDNs are rapidly becoming commodified, but video CDNs are a big deal, and CDNs that can push API-related functionality closer to clients are becoming more useful.