CDN Nugget: “A CDN can have one hundred of the best features in the market that blows away the competition, but if it’s not packaged properly, than the CDN is mediocre at best”. Developing the perfect product mix, feature set, packaging, pricing models, and competitive strategy is extremely challenging. These responsibilities typically fall under the Product Manager. Some Product Managers are visionary’s, and others are brilliant. The one common skill set the majority of CDN Product Managers have is the technical background, whether its in engineering, software development, or something in between. A technical background is a necessary skill set for a Product Manager, but so is having some marketing skills, sales skills, analytical skills, and instincts, in trying to figure out where the market is headed.

How many times have we witnessed a Product Manager fall in love with a feature that was supposedly a game changer. The passion was there, the creativity, the execution, everything. Then once the feature was completed, and rolled out to the customer base, it bombed. Product Managers play an extremely important role in the CDN, because when they create the right feature, its make life a lot easier for the sales rep and the company, that will capture millions of dollars of high profit margin sales. In the next few posts, we’ll dissect and analyze the feature set, product mix, and value proposition for Akamai, Limelight, EdgeCast, and Aryaka Networks. The goal is to provide some guidance to Product Managers and “C” Level Execs from a neutral source that’s not tied to any one CDN. The reason I picked these four CDNs for the analysis is because they offer a ton of features. To be continued in next post.

Bizety CDN Product Mix Analysis