Here’s What The Current CDN Landscape Looks Like, With List Of Vendors

Dan Rayburn | Tuesday December 10, 2013 | 12:01 AM | Comments (20)

With Verizon’s plans to acquire CDN provider EdgeCast, it’s a good time for me to update my list of vendors in the CDN ecosystem. (www.cdnlist.com) The term “CDN” is very generic these days and there are vendors that focus on specific types of content delivery like video streaming or application acceleration and some that focus on a specific vertical like gaming. You also have vendors that don’t fall under the traditional CDN term, for services like web optimization, licensed/managed CDN or services to measure CDN performance, shape traffic amongst multiple CDNs and offer analytics and cloud intelligence. It’s a complex ecosystem, so I highlighted the vendors I track from all the different segments of the content delivery market. Vendors for some services like security and WAN optimization, which sometimes fall under the CDN umbrella are not listed. I also noted which ones aren’t traditional CDN delivery networks.

For those interested in the streaming market, and the vendors that specialize in video, of all the vendors listed below, seven of them (Akamai, Amazon, EdgeCast, Highwinds, Level 3, Limelight Networks and Microsoft) control the vast majority of all video delivered over the Internet, sold as a service. Google, Netflix and Microsoft deliver a lot of video themselves, via their own CDNs or via network operators, but they are not included on my list as they don’t sell content delivery services. If you want to be added to any of these lists, see the bottom of the post for instructions.

Vendors In The CDN Ecosystem

We hear a lot about telcos and carriers in the CDN market, but the vast majority of them have built out CDNs for their own internal use and are not selling it as a commercial CDN service. So it’s not accurate to say they compete with traditional service based CDNs. There are a few exceptions like Level 3, Verizon and Tata who offer commercial CDN services, but most telco and carrier based commercial CDN services are based off of reselling a traditional CDN, for example AT&T reselling Akamai. This telco/carrier list is far from being complete and many more still need to be added.

Telco/Carrier Based CDN Deployments

In addition to the current crop of vendors in the market, I think it’s important to remember how the CDN industry got to where it is today. Many CDNs raised tons of money but didn’t have a business model, some only focused on selling at the lowest price and many had technology that simply didn’t work. Lots on CDNs went under, some within a short time of launching. The CDN market has been through a lot of hard times over the past seventeen years and here’s a running list of those who got acquired or went under.

CDN Related Vendor Acquisitions/Closures

Each time I make a list of vendors, for any solution or service in the market, I always get emails from tons of companies asking why they are not on the list. If you think you should be added to the list, please add it to the comments section but note that I am not listing regional CDNs, hosting providers who offer delivery or companies who get most of their sales from $100 a month customers. Also, just because you may have the word CDN in your name, does not make you one, in the eyes of the market. Also, just because you are not on this list doesn’t mean you don’t have a valid solution in the market, but the companies listed are the ones I get asked about, get mentioned in the media, are included in major RFPs and promote and market their services to medium and large customers.

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