-->

Multi-CDN is Firmly Established; Edge Compute Has Yet to Take Hold

Article Featured Image

To open last week's Content Delivery Summit, StackPath and Help Me Stream Research Foundation presented the findings of the 2021 Content Delivery & Edge Compute Trends survey. Over 300 industry leaders took the survey in April 2021 on topics ranging from CDN selection criteria to edge computing.

The findings from the survey, available now in the Content Delivery Summit YouTube channel, show both how fragmented the CDN market has become as well as how early the streaming industry is in terms of the adoption cycle of edge compute.

"To say the CDN market is highly fragmented is an understatement," said Tim Siglin, founding executive director, Help Me Stream Research Foundation. "While the survey offered respondents a chance to choose from 14 different CDNs on a response list, the 'other' category saw a total of 32 of CDNs written in by respondents."

When asked whether the continued CDN marketplace fragmentation was a surprise to StackPath, SVP of product Arash Marzban said it's a natural progression.

"This doesn't surprise us at all," said Marzban. "At the high end of the market, the discussion is always around multiple CDNs. But also delivery means a lot of different things to different people, so there are a number of growing use cases for CDN deployment."

The vast majority of survey respondents also used at least two CDNs, meaning that we're now firmly in a multi-CDN world. This also means that real-time measurements become table stakes, at least when it comes to load balancing and CDN switching.

Criteria for choosing a CDN varied, but the top choice for all respondents was performance, followed by the use of CDN services to deliver streaming video. Rounding out the top three choices was security.

When we drilled down further into the security question, respondents told us that content protection was far and away the top choice, followed by application protection—whether it be application shielding or component hardening—and then key sets of performance indicators, in a broader data & analytics category.

When looking at edge compute, survey respondents were asked to choose one of a series of stages along the implementation continuum. Stage 0 indicates no plans for edge compute, while Stage 3 indicates a respondent's organization has implemented edge compute in a production environment.

Over half of all respondents chose Stage 0, while about one-quarter said they were in pilot projects (Stage 2) or implementation (Stage 3).

"The number of responses to Stage 0 (no plans) should remind us that current edge compute offerings may not effectively educate on the benefits of edge computing," said Siglin. "But when someone's at Stage 2 or 3 (pilot projects or implementations) their criteria in choosing a CDN shifts."

Siglin also noted that those respondents who have implemented edge computing are also more open to the idea of an Open CDN standards-based "build your own" approach. A lack of expertise, though, hinders implementation of both Open CDN delivery as well as several security features that respondents said they were interested in implementing, from RASP to SASE.

The survey was hosted by Streaming Media and Unisphere Research and crafted by Help Me Stream Research Foundation's Tim Siglin. A copy of the PowerPoint slides  presented at Content Delivery Summit 2021 are available for download here.

Streaming Covers
Free
for qualified subscribers
Subscribe Now Current Issue Past Issues
Related Articles

Why Edge Computing Matters in Streaming

With so much of today's internet traffic flowing through large data centers—some estimates say that 20% of all of the world's data traffic is concentrated in a few counties in northern Virginia, with 80% of that being IP video traffic—how are we going to move from the centralized delivery model of data centers that are a million or more square feet in a single-floor cavernous facility to the edge, where pro­ces­sing can occur closer to the homes of even the remotest rural areas of the U.S.?

NBCU to Talk Super Bowl, Disney Streaming to Talk Multi-CDN at Content Delivery Summit

Alongside Streaming Media East, the Content Delivery Summit is coming to Boston in May, with a program that is more video-centric than ever.

Limelight Will Acquire Edgecast; New Company To Be Called Edgio

Limelight Network's all-stock acquisition of Yahoo's Edgecast is valued at $300 million, signal's Limelight's focus on edge delivery and security

When it Comes to Web Performance, Many CDNs Make Light Work

More and more large enterprises are relying on multi-CDN, a strategy that is no longer as difficult to execute as it once was.

Dutch Team Launches CDN Alliance

The new industry alliance sets out to bring industry competitors together to work on common challenges, as well as be the "voice" of the content delivery industry for the world. The alliance launched this week, and is open for new memberships for both individuals and organizations.

Closer to the Edge: How Broadcasters Are Using Edge Computing to Reimagine the Viewing Experience

Edge computing isn't new, but it's finally transforming how data—including video—is delivered to millions of devices worldwide. Savvy service providers are using it to reimagine the viewing experience.

What Is Streaming Video 'Delivery?'

'Delivery' is one of the most commonly used words in our business? But what does it actually mean? If we think it's just about protocols and bytes, we're never going to catch up to traditional TV.

Every Day I'm Buffering: The Future of Streaming Movies Needs Edge Cloud Computing

How streaming services can achieve that cinematic experience through edge cloud solutions

Take the Content Delivery and Edge Compute Trends Survey

New survey explores the current content delivery landscape, with a focus on security and edge compute

MGM Partners with Eluvio Content Fabric for Next-Gen Delivery

Eluvio Content Fabric used to support MGM sales with film and TV pre-releases, virtual premieres, screenings, marketing, and licensing of MGM's vast library

AWS and ViacomCBS Expand Strategic Agreement to Transform Content Creation and Delivery

Global media leader selects AWS as its preferred broadcast cloud provider to power one of the largest digital transformations in the media and entertainment industry

Content Delivery at the Edge in 2020

Akamai's Peter Chave and Streaming Media's Tim Siglin discuss the current state of edge compute and how CDNs have adjusted to unprecedented surges in 2020 in this clip from Content Delivery Summit 2020.