April 9th, 2009
Is Cisco ready to pounce on the CDN market?
Cisco may be pondering a move into the content delivery network market.
According to a report in the Business of Online Video, it appears that Cisco has been acquiring colocation space at third party data centers for a content delivery network (CDN). Cisco has its own CDN, but it’s for internal use. CDNs move content closer to the user for faster delivery.
Cisco’s move into CDN market wouldn’t be all that surprising. After all, the jump toward offering CDN services is nothing compared to the leap of making servers.
When you consider how video is fueling Cisco’s future growth—sales of routers, switches and telepresence systems—it only makes sense that the company would toss in CDN services too. It’s unclear whether Cisco’s move would be a big threat to companies like Akamai and Limelight.
A few telecom providers are already offering CDN services. In February, Global Crossing announced that it would offer CDN services.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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