Content Delivery Network Strategies, by Stef van der Ziel

By patching their networks together, many small and large network operators around the world have built a global virtual network: the Internet. It offers open and global access to any server and service in any connected network. The open and neutral character is what made the Internet the next big thing in humanity. So it is important to keep it open and neutral. And it is important to keep it running.

Iin the past few years, there has been discussion about Net Neutrality. Are ISPs allowed to block services? No? What about spam? Are ISPs allowed to shape traffic? No? Not even if a small number of subscribers can take their entire network down? Are ISP’s allowed to rent network resources to service providers so they can accelerate specific services?

In the USA, the Net Neutrality discussion is very polarized: either you are ‘freedom fighter’ who want laws to make sure that no single bit is discriminated or accelerated, or you are against government involvement and want the TelCos to be able to tune their network.

In Europe, we have a different view… Read more

Sometimes I am asked to give guest lectures at universities. Today, many universities have creative media or new media oriented study programs. Read more

HTTP streaming is seen as the holy grail. It is hot. But what are the benefits and downsides?

Let’s start with the technical differences of digital video delivery:

Read more