Akamai Technologies, Inc. the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high performing user experiences on any device, anywhere, today announced that Aura Lumen and Aura Spectra are now available as part of the company’s Aura Network Solutions family of Operator CDN (OCDN) technologies.
Designed to address the growing demand for online content and video, Aura Network Solutions can help network service providers support new revenue generation opportunities, provide a superior user experience, manage network costs,and simplify the video delivery infrastructure for both operator-owned content and over-the-top (OTT) services.
Recognizing that operators have different requirements driving their CDN deployments, the Aura Network Solutions suite is comprised of two distinct OCDN product lines – Aura Lumen (licensed CDN) and Aura Spectra (Software-as-a-Service CDN). This model is designed to maximize flexibility in how operators deploy the solution and, in turn, increase the value of their OCDN investment.
Further, the integration ofproducts obtained through Akamai’s acquisition of Verivue has allowed Akamai to deliver Aura Lumen as a comprehensive solution that can be owned and run by the operator, giving them greater control of their investment.
The ability to use video and other online content to provide innovative new services, increase average revenue per user and reduce subscriber churn is critical to ongoing operator success.
To address this new reality,operators are offering their own multi-screen video solutions as a type of OTT service. In addition,operators have sought opportunities that allow them to deploy a cost-efficient network that capitalizes on traffic growth and new subscriber services without undertaking the cost and complexity associated with developing an “in-house” CDN.
“Many carriers are taking a very different approach to their CDN strategy than they did only a few years ago.In the past, there was a strongdesire for operators to build their own CDN and go it alone in the market. Now, they actively seek a partnership approach to address their needs,” said Paris Burstyn, Senior Analyst, Ovum.
“Working with the right partner can improve their network economics by offloading more Internet traffic, help sell enterprise and media CDN services to their customers, and leverage an open system CDN to deliver multi-screen video experiences to their subscribers,” added Burstyn.
Unlike large infrastructure-based OCDN deployments that rely primarily on equipment, Aura Network Solutions are focused on delivering Akamai’s industry-proven expertise and history of CDN innovation from the outset. For example, operators can more rapidly meet the subscriber demand for multi-screen video options through Akamai’s ability to deliver HTTP video in multiple formats. As important, using Aura Lumen or Aura Spectra can help operators reduce CDN complexity by eliminating the need to deploy multiple point solutions or proprietary/ specialized hardware typical of other offerings in the market.
Further, Akamai OCDN solutions have been shown to allow operators to offload a significant amount of their global Web traffic, increasing overall network efficiency.
“The value of CDNs is very clear to the operator community, but getting to a place where they could benefit involved significant investment, technical complexity and a means to more effectively deal with ‘off network’ content proved extremely difficult,” explained Mick Scully, Vice President & General Manager, Carrier Products Division, Akamai.
“Through our Aura Network Solutions we’re able to provide operators with new ways to take advantage of the IP media revolution, evolve their business models and attract and keep new subscribers. And we’re doing it in a way that’s intended to be as flexible and cost effective for our customers as possible,” Scully added.