New CDN Vendors Still Launching: Updated List Of Content Delivery Networks

Dan Rayburn | Tuesday January 13, 2009 | 11:24 AM | Comments (25)

Over the past few quarters, more content delivery networks have launched services in the market or have announced upcoming offerings. To try and keep track of all the different companies, twice a year I update my list of content delivery networks who offer some form of video delivery services. (To make the list easier to find on my blog, all you have to do is go to www.cdnlist.com for the latest update)

Every time I publish the list I get many comments from those who work at some of the CDNs saying it is not fair to compare vendors on this list with one another. For the record, this list is not comparing one vendor to another. It is simply a list of the vendors who in one shape or another offer some kind of video delivery offering. It would be like making a list of all the car manufacturers and the list would contain both Ford and Ferrari. But that does not mean you are comparing a Ford to a Ferrari. It's just a vendor list.

When it comes to the term "CDN", it is one of those terms that is very generic and can be debated all day long, similar to others terms in our industry like "cloud computing" or "edge network". Everyone seems to have different opinions on what it should mean. That being said, take a look at what companies analysts and the media write about in the market and see who they do and do not reference as a CDN. Some may not agree with them, but that's reality. The market defines who they think a CDN is.

To use this list to make comparisons of one provider over another without looking at a company's size, products offered, revenue generated, geographic reach of network, number of formats
supported etc.. would simply be inaccurate. Some of those companies listed are in beta with their offering and some literally have no customers as they have just launched in the market. Again, it is just a list of vendors, some of which are pure-play CDNs, others which aren't.

The companies listed are those who provide outsourced CDN hosting services. That's why companies like Konitki and others are not listed since they provide software to deliver video across your enterprise network. Same goes for companies like Swarmcast which is many times classified as a CDN when they are really a video platform. Additionally, companies like Ascent Media are not on the list as they provide video delivery service across a closed network from one customer location to another. For this post, I also did not list the video delivery providers who target a very specific geographic region which I classify as "regional service providers". At last count, there are over two hundred of these providers and you can find many of them listed in the StreamingMedia.com industry directory.

In alphabetical order these are the video delivery networks that I am currently tracking in the industry:

If you think a company is missing from this list, please feel free to add it in the comments section and please make sure you read all of my post before making any comments.

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