We are going to make some bold predictions for 2017. First, let’s look back at 2016 – this year was the most innovative period in history, thanks to the convergence of 1) CDN + Cloud Security 2) CDN + WAN and 3) Edge Security + Client-Side Security.  Other notable disruptions – there is a new CDN powerhouse we call the Cloud Trio “CloudFront + Google CDN + Azure CDN”. We expect Azure and Google to catch up t0 CloudFront next year. The big surprise – Client-Side security (Bot + Malware) has replaced Edge Security (DDoS + WAF) as the hottest segment in the market. In 2017, we expect the following to take place:

2017 Predictions

1. $.002/GB for 1PB/month will become the new norm (that’s 20% of 1 penny)
2. CloudFlare will get Acquired by Google
3. Oracle will acquire a CDN not named Akamai
4. Ns1 will get acquired by IBM or Microsoft
5. CloudFront + Google CDN + Azure CDN will triple their existing CDN market share
6. Akamai will acquire two startups: 1) pure-play bot mitigation company and 2) client-side malware protection startup
7. AWS business model will start showing cracks and EC2 will have new competition
8.  Edge Security and client-side security business models will converge
9. Delivery infrastructure platforms such as Nginx, Varnish, Wowza and Red5 will continue to move into CDN services, accelerating DIY CDN deployments