Speedera touts price of CDN package
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SAN JOSE - Speedera Networks this week will offer customers a bundled service package for a price that's about half that of the services purchased individually.
The content delivery network (CDN) service provider will introduce SpeedSuite Tuesday during the opening day of The Content Networking Event Fall 2001. The package features everything from bandwidth and storage to whole site delivery and live streaming. It also includes an advanced monitoring and reporting tool that lets users manage the different services from one user interface.
The services can be purchased separately from Speedera, but the cost is much greater (see graphic). Other CDN providers, such as Akamai, also offer bundled services, but SpeedSuite offers more at a deeper cost reduction, analysts say.
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"This is an important discount packaging strategy," says Greg Howard, principal analyst at the HTRC Group.
Many companies choose to purchase services separately because they might need only secure streaming, for example, and not object delivery.
Other vendors expected to make announcements at the show include:
The three-day CDN show will include talks by hardware and software vendors, CDN service providers and analysts about the future of the market, the role of technologies such as caching, security and application delivery, and the pros and cons of building your own enterprise CDN.
Show organizers expect roughly 1,000 attendees, about half the number who attended last year's event when the CDN market was humming. Since then, vendors have faced tough times. Companies such as Adero and Edgix have gone out of business and even market leader Akamai Technologies has reduced its staff to rein in costs in the current recession.
Nevertheless, a recent report by market research firm IDC found that the overall content networking market is set to boom, growing from $1.6 billion this year to $8 billion in 2005, due in large part to network equipment sales into the enterprise market.
HTRC's Howard says the number of homegrown CDNs is increasing. HTRC recently surveyed 232 companies and found that 54% planned to deploy their own CDNs next year, most to handle streaming media.
However, Howard says companies looking to extend their reach beyond internal network boundaries will save time and money by partnering with a service provider.
The question is whether it makes more sense for a company to build its own CDN or use a service provider. Ajit Gupta, CEO of Speedera, and Gary Tomlinson, CTO of CDN equipment vendor CacheFlow, are expected to address that issue during the show.
What CDN service providers have to provide, Howard says, are in-depth management tools so companies can keep a close eye on how their content is being delivered.
SpeedSuite includes an enhanced version of SpeedEye, Speedera's monitoring and management tool that enables users to pinpoint problems at specific servers in specific locations. SpeedSuite is available, but Blair Harrison, CTO at iFilm, which delivers online movies, has used a SpeedSuite-like bundle of services since September. He can add and remove services as needed and says he's cut his delivery bill by 80% since moving to Speedera from Akamai because he can mix and match the services he needs.
"There are more and more customers who require multiple services from us," says Gordon Smith, a Speedera vice president. "[Customers] don't want to buy separate packages, separate services, which have their own associated minimum monthly volumes, for example. It gets complicated and pricey."
"It's a lot easier to make one purchasing decision, get one bill, charged in a uniform way across all services and have a uniform reporting and management system," he adds.
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Speedera: www.speedera.com; Content Networking Event: events.stardust.com/cdn/
