Highwinds, a provider of content delivery, network and cloud-based IP services, has expanded its managed services portfolio to include a Licensed CDN (content delivery network) service for ISPs, telcos and MSOs. It enables last-mile providers to create new CDN-based revenue streams by delivering advanced CDN capabilities to their customers, while alleviating the strain over-the-top (OTT) content is putting on their networks.
Highwinds Licensed CDN is designed to support the Federated CDN model and allows providers to seamlessly transition between Highwinds’ multiple CDN solution tiers — reselling, managed hosting and licensing.
The company has been licensing its software and providing managed hosting services to ISPs and telcos since 2003, according to Steve Miller, chairman and CEO of Highwinds, and it currently has 63 customers in this space. He said that a licensing and federating platform was a natural next step for the company.
Highwinds Licensed CDN lets customers add CDN services to their solutions portfolio and grow in a way that both leverages their own network strengths and subsidizes their network expansion. The Licensed CDN allows carriers to seamlessly transition between various tiers without ever re-provisioning their customer accounts.
The company's Federated CDN allows providers to expand their footprint through federation, interconnecting their CDN with Highwinds CDN and other federation partners to cross-deliver traffic. CDN federation members benefit from a larger footprint without further deployment, giving each member the ability to sell global delivery, reduce local transport costs, and complement existing transit and peering relationships.
“With the rapid growth of OTT video being delivered over last-mile networks around the world, the CDN space is obviously interesting to telcos and other communications providers. For some, it makes perfect sense to design their own CDN. For most, it does not,” said Josh Gagliardi, Highwinds CTO. “Our Licensed CDN platform is designed for the vast majority who need instant-on, flexible, scalable, reliable CDN solutions. It also delivers the unique hardware infrastructure and solid software foundation on which the Federated CDN must be built.”
Highwinds delivers content and rich media over its high-performance RollingThunder network to millions of global users every day. Highwinds CDN customers gain unprecedented command and control with its StrikeTracker console and open APIs.
Highwinds is headquartered in Winter Park, FL, and maintains data centers around the world.
