Boosting SA’s Internet content delivery through CDNs
Content delivery networks (CDN) have become of a popular way for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to serve content faster and cheaper to their subscribers.
South Africa has seen strong growth when it comes to local CDNs with Google establishing a strong presence in the country with their Google Global Cache (GGC) and BCX launching their Limelight CDN node in October last year.
Many other service providers such as MWEB, Web Africa and Telkom have well established CDNs, caching content ranging from web pages to audio-video files and even torrent downloads in some cases.
Apart from the obvious benefits of better service levels and lower bandwidth charges, CDNs also encourage peering in many cases.
It is an open secret that the Google Global Cache (GGC) servers which reside on TENET’s network made TENET a particularly popular peering partner with local ISPs, and MWEB also openly invites ISPs to peer with them to gain access to all content on their CDN.
More CDNs coming
South Africa’s growth in broadband penetration rates and Internet users mean that more companies are interested in bringing their content closer to local netizens and hence establish local CDNs. One such development is Neotel’s planned BitGravity node.
Neotel said that it is preparing to launch a node on the international BitGravity Content Delivery Network, which provides leading edge performance for streaming media.
“As the Tier 1 ISP hosting the BitGravity platform, Neotel’s shareholder Tata Communications (and Neotel) offer this CDN globally as a paid service to content providers, although obviously Neotel’s downstream (transit) customers will benefit directly from the improved performance, at no additional charge,” said Neotel CEO Angus Hay.
Vodacom would not divulge their plans when it comes to CDNs, but did say that it has “an important role to play in the delivery of Internet services.”
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