AT&T Partners With Akamai on CDN Suite

Here’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the content delivery network (CDN) sector:

Akamai and AT&T form alliance.  Akamai Technologies (AKAM) and AT&T announced a strategic alliance to deliver a global suite of content delivery network (CDN) solutions to companies. The AT&T global network and Akamai CDN platform will be combined to deliver to companies an exclusive suite of global CDN and telecom solutions that will be jointly marketed, managed and supported by the two companies. Under the terms of the agreement, Akamai will deploy CDN servers at the edge of AT&T's IP network and in AT&T facilities throughout the United States. The companies have also agreed to dedicate shared resources including technical support, customer care, marketing and professional services support. "Aligning Akamai's services with the global reach, scale and product depth of AT&T creates a powerful relationship aimed at helping enterprises optimize their online businesses," said Paul Sagan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Akamai. "Together with AT&T, we share a common goal of developing solutions to maximize the Web and mobile end user experience, while driving down network-related costs and improving network efficiencies. We believe there will be tremendous value to customers in deploying within AT&T's robust IP network, and in jointly going to market with leading content delivery and cloud infrastructure offerings." For additional background and context, see Dan Rayburn's analysis.

TED selects Level 3 for video streaming.  Level 3 Communications (LVLT)  announced it has signed an agreement to serve as the primary streaming partner for TED, the global nonprofit devoted to "ideas worth spreading." The videos, known as TED Talks just surpassed one billion views, and Level 3 will ensure TED's international audiences receive an optimized viewing experience, through its highly scalable, global media delivery platform. "We are truly honored to help deliver TED's extensive and continually growing repository of powerful, insightful talks from thought leaders around the world," said Mark Taylor, vice president of Media and IP Services for Level 3. "TED distributes content globally, making it critically important that they have a high-quality, rapid CDN that can easily scale to handle large amounts of content. We are pleased to support them with our global CDN platform."

Octoshape and Juniper collaborate.  Octoshape announced it has developed an integrated technology showcase with Juniper Networks to provide a foundation for Broadband TV with the scale, quality and cost efficiency of broadcast TV. The showcase is being hosted from Juniper Networks New Jersey-based OpenLab, the Junos Center for Innovation, which facilitates a collaborative environment for Juniper’s customers, partners and academia to learn about and develop new network integrated software applications. The showcase integrates Octoshape’s Infinite HD-M Federated Multicast platform with Juniper Networks MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers for both Native Multicast, and Automatic Multicast Tunneling (AMT). The HD-M solution for high definition Internet video has been in production since April 2012, and now utilizes the first commercially available AMT relay from Juniper.  “Octoshape’s advanced video distribution technology provides high definition Internet video regardless of the geographic location, connectivity or network conditions of the viewer. Combined with Juniper’s AMT technology on its MX Series routers, it enables us to transform the quality and economics of Internet-based video,” said Mike Bushong, senior director product line management, Junos, Juniper Networks.