Today, the CDN Ecosystem is dramatically different than that of 2007. Not only is the current CDN market larger, but it’s bound to explode in the next five years from $3B to $12B+, due to the changes in the Internet industry. The entrance of powerful content heavy based Internet brands such as Snapchat, Imgur, Pinterest, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, and many others have changed the CDN industry for the better, because at the center of their universe is content delivery.
CDNs are smarter now, and have adapted their infrastructure to meet the needs of this particular customer, and also help them thrive in the shadows of Akamai. Instart Logic, Aryaka Networks, and others are investing their heart and soul in building premium niche services. These services are making it possible for the CDNs to invade other technology sectors that are non-CDN in nature: MPLS, post production and security.
Fourth Generation CDN of 2020
CDN Market Size Explodes in Five Years
The new breed of highly focused CDNs are creating very innovative services, enabling them to invade other technology sectors, such as security, digital media/film production, and MPLS. No more is this more evident than in security industry, where the CyberSecurity CDNs are completely replacing some of the hardware appliance functionality offered by old guard companies, such as F5 Networks, Citrix, Riverbed, Cisco and Brocade. Over the next five years, its only going to get worse for the hardware manufacturers, because the CyberSecurity CDNs are going to create new services that will be impossible to mimic.
The same thing is happening in the film production business. Cloud technology has decimated many niches services once offered by post production facilities. MediaSilo and Aframe are two companies are game changers, collapsing certain sectors that were once only the domain of Deluxe, Avid, and Adobe. The third sector being disrupted by CDNs is the MPLS market. Aryaka Networks has created a new market that is a slowly replacing the global MPLS solution.
Conclusion: The CDN industry might be only a few billion dollars now, but CDNs have expanded their market potential by encroaching other technology sectors. Many services that were once strictly the domain of old guard technology companies, have opened up to CDNs. In five years, many of these specialized CDNs will come to dominate some of niche markets.