Dave Temkin, Netflix Director of Global Networks recently presented the nuts and bolts of Netflix’s CDN Infrastructure. The presentation was feature packed, and he provided the audience with lots of interesting details. For those companies interested in building a global CDN infrastructure, capable of supporting a massive volume of VOD delivery, there is much to be learned from Netflix. Netflix’s goal in building their CDN was twofold: to replace Akamai, Limelight Networks and Level 3 by 2013, and to increase control of their content delivery efforts from the PoP to the end user, much like Google and Apple. The results were positive, and Netflix is delivering a large chunk of their own content.
Netflix CDN SuperRackÂ
- Deployed two caching systems 1) Rev C/H and 2) Rev F
- Rev C/H caching servers come with 36x8TB drives, supports 18Gbps of traffic. These servers are used for cataloging
- Rev F caching server comes with 24x1TB SSD and support 40Gbps of traffic. These servers are used for popular content, such as House of Cards.
- Netflix SuperRack: 44U Rack with 10 Rev C’s servers and 30 Rev F’s s servers supporting 5.6kW/7.5kW
- 6 Racks supports 3Tbps of traffic at a minimum
 Netflix Infrastructure Bites
- Majority of Internet ports at the data centers are 10Gbps
- No colo really supports 100Gbps circuits (Internet connectivity)
- Denver PoP supports 2.4Tbps, and it was deployed in less than a day
- Netflix delivers dozens of Tbps at peak every night across its network
- Thousands of servers are in deployment globally
- ISP’s hosting Netflix servers are the same servers Netflix uses in their infrastructure
- In France, Netflix is deployed at Telehouse Paris with 1 Tbps+ of Internet connectivity and 40kW of power
- Telehouse Paris is one of the largest data centers in Paris, home to France-IX (inter-exchange)
- Telehouse Paris handles 80% of France’s Internet Traffic
- Netflix can reach every single network across France from Telehouse Paris
- Chicago PoP is Netflix largest in the world
- Rapid Deployment process enables Netflix to deploy a PoP in 2 days or less, which will support multi-Tbps