Content Delivery Networks
The Challenge: Deliver an Internet Video storage and delivery system that exceeds current CDN costs models while delivering massive scalability and high performance.
The Solution: The 8170 Distribution System, with 40Gb/S of base aggregate delivery performance and over 96TB of base storage capacity.
Today’s traditional enterprises systems don’t meet the performance needs of Content Delivery Networks. These traditional systems, optimized to prevent data loss in transaction processing environments, are not designed or configured to maximize video delivery performance. Until now, there have been no viable solutions for CDNs other than developing their own “white box” Internet Video storage and delivery systems. These resource-hungry in-house solutions are often painful to develop, deploy, and maintain. Scaling these “white-box” systems typically entails costly and time-consuming rearchitecting and reengineering at least once a year. Given the escalating global demand for Internet Video, CDNs want and need the capability to expand exponentially and seamlessly without jeopardizing their cost models.
The 8170 Distribution System is the first integrated storage/delivery system designed for Internet Video from the ground up, addressing the issues that are vital to CDNs today. Based on a unique combination of intelligent software, grid architecture, and tuned and tailored industry-standard hardware, the 8170 Distribution System is low –risk, easy –to –deploy, and delivers 10 times the performance of traditional solutions.
The 8170 Distribution System was designed with the scalability needs of CDNs in mind. The 8170 ensures Quality of Service (QoS) by managing vast amounts of new content without overprovisioning or attempting to select the optimal storage location based on the system volume. Blackwave systems respond to the resilience, performance, and integrity requirements of each title: popular content is mirrored and always available, without rebuilding. By treating content uniquely at the title level, the 8170 Distribution System responds seamlessly to spikes in demand for popular content. Only Blackwave systems can differentiate the performance requirements of user-generated content from those of multilanguage, multiformat high-definition (HD) movie trailers so that the QoS of each title is met without inefficient storage overhead.
Because we understand that CDNs must achieve rigorous cost models to remain competitive, we designed the 8170 Distribution System with your business objectives in mind. The 8170 Distribution System delivers the lowest cost per stream of any content delivery solution, providing you with a powerful competitive advantage.
Benefits for Content Delivery Networks:
- Cost Per Stream
Blackwave has cut storage and delivery infrastructure costs in half through more efficient content management, optimized for Internet Video. For instance, the annual cost per stream for a 1.5Mb/s movie is $47 using the 8170 Distribution System, compared to $355 for the same movie using a custom in-house solution. These cost savings will significantly improve your company’s bottom line.
- Performance
The 8170 Distribution System was designed to maximize your return on investment by delivering unparalleled aggregate read performance. Each Blackwave system drive delivers an average of 500Mb/s streaming-download performance, 10 times the industry average. Because the 8170 Distribution System provisions content in real time at the title level instead of at the system volume level, you can rely on consistent QoS without wasteful storage overhead.
- Form Factor
You’ll need at least 32 racks of “white box” products to achieve the same performance as a single-rack Blackwave system. That means that when you install a Blackwave system, you will be able to increase your productivity while downsizing your existing footprint. As the demands on your network grow and your customer base proliferates, energy and form factor efficiency will become critical. By minimizing space and power requirements, the 8170 Distribution System gives you the flexibility you need to install multiple system sites near your customers’ audiences.
- Flexibility
With the 8170 Distribution System, you can independently scale storage and delivery in response to the dynamic needs of your customer base. This flexibility delivers a better return on investment, since you can adaptively expand to address growing library volumes, content types, file sizes, and audience demand.
- Scalability
CDNs often require massive global expansions to respond to changes in content mix or to keep up with the dynamic QoS requirements of their customers and audiences. The 8170 Distribution System comes ready with up to 40Gb/s delivery performance, scalable to 10 Tb/s of aggregate read performance, and over 96TB of capacity, scalable to 10PBs of title storage in a single namespace. Blackwave’s 10Gb/s Ethernet grid architecture treats all of your locations as one entity, enabling you to ingest content convenient to your customers and store it in any number of remote locations.