Inside Akamai and the scary future of streaming video
When we watch YouTube or stream TV through a Boxee, the assumption is that aside from some buffering, the experience will be fine. But add live content and interactive elements to those video streams, and it gets complicated. A new paper shows us how complicated.
3Crowd Lets Customers Roll Their Own CDN
For many web publishers, CDN costs are a fact of life and just the cost of doing business on the Internet. But technology startup 3Crowd believes that by enabling customers to build their own caches, it will be able to send CDN costs down to zero.
Royal Wedding Breaks Records, Not the Internet
The royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton was a very gallant affair, and one that amassed huge global audiences online. Due to a large number of live streams available, viewers from all over were able to tune in live from wherever they were.
Akamai to Launch P2P-Based Streaming Video Client
Akamai could begin leveraging P2P technology to stream live or on-demand videos. While it has been experimenting off and on with P2P ever since its acquisition of Red Swoosh in 2007, the introduction of video streaming through its NetSession client-side technology might be close to release.
Akamai Takes on TV Everywhere Authentication
The cable world is adopting TV Everywhere as a way to provide more content to pay TV subscribers, but until lately the typical sign-on process hasn't been very user-friendly. Akamai is hoping to change that with a new offering for pay TV providers and cable networks.
Maybe UltraViolet, the Ginormous Media Cloud Locker Thingy, Won’t Fail, After All. What Do You Say, Steve Jobs?
A big "everyone but Apple" coalition of hardware and software companies might be able to make a cloud-based media service work. If Apple will play along.
NFL Pushes HD Video, With Help From Akamai
The NFL is increasing the amount of high-definition video that it serves up and is relying on Akamai to ensure viewers get the best video available. With more HD video, the NFL reports viewership is up, with fans watching 58 percent more video than last year. 
Akamai Simplifies iOS Streaming With Its HD Network
Akamai is set to announce new capabilities making it easier for companies to deliver video to the iPhone or iPad. With its new "in the network" video packaging, content providers will be able to serve up video to multiple Apple devices without changing their existing workflow. 
Brightcove Dumps Limelight for Akamai
Brightcove is announcing today that it is transitioning to Akamai's CDN and working with it to roll out new features to clients based on Akamai's HD network. The move will come as a blow to Limelight, which previously owned the bulk of Brightcove's video delivery business. 
