We are witnessing CDN Business Model Chaos. Finally, after all these years, the CDN industry is changing for good, and going in a new direction. And no one in the industry knows what is that direction, and we can only speculate about the outcome at this time. I can already hear all the CDN veterans dismiss this notion, but we can take nothing for granted, and big time change is upon us. For many years, the CDN Industry was innovating at a mediocre pace, although we didn’t know it at the time. Product development was sound, and features like DSA, Rules Engine, FEO, WAF, and so on were cutting edge and cool, with some wow factor to them. For sales teams, those features meant a great opportunity to up-sell, and bundle new features with bread and butter CDN services. Although the prices were high, and still are in many cases, the prices truly reflect the benefits they provide. However, the recent developments by Instart Logic and Aryaka Networks, are not only innovative, but scary innovative, in a way that is probably going to put some CDNs out of business. Right now, I’m thinking about a dozen new CDN business models, thanks to Instart Logic and Aryaka. Over time, I’ll discuss more of them in detail.
The innovations by Instart Logic and Aryaka Networks are game changers. Instart Logic has introduced a killer out-of-the-box feature that was only made possible by a team that is from outside the CDN industry. They blend in elements of CDN, VM, Big Data, DSA, FEO, Intelligent Algorithm Driven Applications, and so on. And by big data, I don’t mean crunching log files for reporting purposes, but crunching data in real time so applications can make decisions in real time, based on the input received within that second. In addition, Aryaka Networks took the traditional CDN model, and custom tailored it for the back-end enterprise environment, where Oracle, SAP, and SharePoint rule the day. That begs the question, what happens to the traditional CDN business that offers only caching and streaming services? Unfortunately, the CDNs who fail to adapt, and create a new business models are likely to implode. June 2014 is the month that CDN Business Model Chaos started, so jump in and hold on, cause we are in for a fast ride for the next 12 months.