Cedexis: Pros and Cons of Cloud and Hybrid CDN Delivery

在过去的一年, cloud data centers have become almost ubiquitous across the globe—or at least in key markets—as high-performance, low-cost options for 媒体 delivery. But are they doing so at the expense of CDNs?

Cloud-hosted data centers have a role to play in 媒体 delivery, Pete Mastin说, 市场策略师 Cedexis. But they also come with some limitations.

“As people moved to cloud infrastructures, they lost the visibility they were used to in the data center,马斯汀说.

Mastin discussed the business drivers for a hybrid CDN approach during a presentation called "Understanding Cloud & Hybrid CDN Strategies" at the 内容交付峰会, held in conjunction with the 2015东流媒体 show in New York this week.

Mastin said Cedexis is well suited to provide insight in to the benefits of what he calls a hybrid CDN. The concept around a hybrid CDN is a content delivery environment in which an enterprise provides and manages some resources in-house but has other services provided externally from a traditional CDN.

Cedexis uses Real User Measurements (RUM) to collect billions of availability and performance measurements—from 3 billion to over 6 billion measurements on any given day—from many data networks around the world.

基于此RUM数据, the company can make real-time decisions around how to best utilize multiple CDNs or even a CDN in conjunction with an in-house origin, the latter forming the basis of a hybrid CDN.

Mastin pointed out several stages of growth from a single origin to a hybrid CDN in a chart. This "CDN Maturity Model" slide started with single origin, 移动到单个CDN, through a multi-CDN approach, and ultimately matured as a hybrid-CDN approach.

He further explained the models, balancing between a multi-CDN solution and a hybrid CDN solution. Mastin说 about half of the ten Cedexis clients use an occasional origin delivery model. 

另一个模型, 被较少的客户端使用, uses a localized performance improvement approach, adding a cache in a particular underserved geography.

最终模型, where points of presence at many locations are built out as a private CDN, uses the traditional CDN approach for peak performance.

Mastin said the use of these models by Cedexis clients shows how online 媒体 (website, 媒体, video, advertising) companies are implementing these strategies. But the biggest future growth is coming in terms of hybrid CDNs.

“Why are hybrid CDN approaches becoming popular now?马斯汀问. “First, the cost of delivery is increasing.”

“第二, web performance continues to be a differentiator for online businesses,马丁说，“录像。, 电子商务, and advertising-based models all compete on performance.”

第三, Mastin说, web caching has become a best practice, including the creation of reverse proxies to thwart denial-of-service attacks.

Mastin also covered scenarios in which a commercial CDN alone may not fit the business model.

扩展, 长尾目录, hyper-regional观众, significant security requirements, and highly dynamic applications are some of the issues that may compel companies to move away from a solely commercial CDN approach.

“Cost containment is the biggest factor,” added Mastin.

Finally, Mastin showed examples of clients that use a hybrid CDN approach.

新观察家, a French-speaking newspaper, 使用混合方法, as does the well-known Michelin travel site, and both have moved towards hybrid buildout.

第三个例子, 虚拟博览会, has moved from using only a CDN to a hybrid CDN approach, but recently settled on a purpose-built CDN, which is based primarily on the uses of Varnish boxes and Cedexis real-time analytics.