Cisco-backed global delivery network Qwilt has today signed an extended partnership with Vodafone, which will see them deploy a new Content Delivery Network (CDN) to increase the quality and capacity of the operator’s streaming delivery to its mobile and broadband ISP customers across Europe (inc. UK) and Africa.
Content delivery networks typically function by moving the most internet popular content (e.g. video and music streams from YouTube, Spotify, Netflix etc.) closer to customers and keeping it cached for when requests are made by other users, which can help to reduce an access provider’s capacity demands and improve overall service performance.
Naturally, Vodafone, much like most network operators of any scale, already had a CDN solution. But the new deal will go further and aims to “create the world’s largest federated CDN” by integrating Qwilt’s Open Edge Cloud for Content Delivery platform with Cisco’s edge compute and networking infrastructure at the edge of the operator’s network.
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Following a successful trial in Italy, Vodafone will initially start deploying the service in seven countries across Europe and Africa (none are named today). The roll-out will then progressively ramp up as Qwilt and Cisco work with additional service providers worldwide.
Giorgio Migliarina, Vodafone Business’ Products and Services Director, said:
“Our partnership with Qwilt and Cisco enables Vodafone and its broadcast partners to deliver a superior streaming service to customers. It means less buffering and lower latency services for the end user.
Also, by using open caching, we can more easily scale the service to meet the growing demands for live streaming, video-on-demand, and application services whilst providing content providers with a standardized platform built on Open APIs across multiple countries in Europe and Africa.”
Over 150 service providers have already partnered with Qwilt to enable the open edge in their networks, serving over one billion unique subscribers globally, and another one of those customers in the UK is BT.
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