Loading ...Techcrunch has become one of my favorite sights to browse when I have time to kill. From there I found that Limelight Networks has raised $130MM in funding and is one of the leading content delivery networks. CDN for iTunes is Akamai and for You Tube it is Limelight.
For hosting EV1 is a sponsor of Techcrunch and a leading hosting provider.
I am curious to know if CDN/Hosting is available in India with quality comparable or better than EV1/Limelight and who the leading providers are ?
For Indian companies wanting scalable/reliable hosting/bandwidth to serve Indian consumers would they go to people like EV1 or would they go to Indian providers ?
The market is competitive at the low end - just web space and email accounts. Beyond that the local vs overseas gulf is wide in terms of what you get for what you pay.
Smart startups opt for Amazon S3.
But it lacks the ease of use you get with say a Cpanel interface with a linux dedicated server.
I’ll see if i can find out ….but i seriously wonder if we do ……i mean for once there’s no india market for online videos…i mean we only have 1.5M broadband lines to start with ……n even if CDN is to support foriegn land ..i geuss our international bandwidht costs are still high ……(again no local content)
But just wonderin …we haev da cheapest telecom gear available in india …….i think it’ll be great to research n do a cost study on checkin if settin up a CDN in india would be feasible …..
N i have to agree to TechCrunch is great at wat it does …..almost profiles astronomical number of webstartups ….i’d rather call it the Wikipedia for Webstartup information….Micheal is a dude ….a future TimOReilly ???…..and guess what ….
There’s an indian bringin Techcrunch home too …profiling Indian webstartups @ …webyantra.net…Great work by amit ranjan …
Amit Siwal
Very interesting question. A few thoughts, specifically about CDN (I know even lesser about hosting):
1. IMHO, the Indian market hasnt hit that kind of scalability requirement as yet, especially for rich-media distribution (audio / video / high-resolution graphics). IMHO again, CDNs have maximum relevance in rich-media distribution. At most, one could see them useful for distribution of largely-static text content, where scalability requirements are just too huge. Application hosting might be a different game.
2. A few ISPs (notably Reliance) have been speaking of integrated delivery of content, including VoD, on one wire. My sense is they have investigated setting up a CDN for themselves - which IMHO is a different game than setting up a third-party CDN. (To my understanding, in most cases, it aint full-fledged CDN, but devicing a scalable way to serve high-quality on-demand audio / video — there have been companies trying to do this technology in the US, and its a surprise most of them failed! Also, BT has just launched such a service in the pilot mode.)
3. It is not entirely clear if it makes sense to build a “India-specific” CDN - or whether it really means anything at all. This is related to how Akamai works - their algorithms to distribute content, and the caching technology. To my understanding, to build “India-specific Akamai”, all Akamai needs to do is to co-locate servers with ISPs in India - which it already does (most probably with VSNL in Mumbai / Delhi). People in India will simply get the content from servers in India, without the packets really doing a world-travel before reaching the intended computer.
4. I do not know the pricing of the Akamai-types. I dont know their cost structures, and the cap-ex they’ve made. I also do not know the way their relationships with ISPs work. But if there is a market of rich-content producers and consumers in India, where such a service can be sold even after Akamai-types are around, CDNs can certainly be made.
Not just reliance ….BHarti,BSNL,MTNL too has been testing IP-TV solution and a CDN forms teh backend for that and delivers rich media content over their Broadband network which is DSL at teh moment(383K subs)……
However, all the operators will be setting up their CDN’s for delivering media over their networks to their Subscribers …..with Internet/voip as core services ……
I guess market for Internet companies to setup CDN for delivering applicationas thru websites over www is not being penetrated by service provides ….they r all busy counting mobile users additions n doin those sms fraud ……….
EV1 is an unreliable host, tried them and left them.
Here are opinions on hosts from leading Webmasters:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum120/2.htm
Speedera was a successful CDN service provider in India which was acquired by Akamai. Akamai does have an operation in India.
Several networks like IndiaTimes, Rediff already use CDNs to reach readers in different parts of the country and abroad.
Broadband penetration is still limited in India, 256kbps is considered broadband while our friends in US, Korea etc. have 6 MBps pipes to home. Lack of bandwidth also limits bandwidth hungry operations like video.
The costs of setting up a conventional CDN the way Akamai does is pretty high. A peer to peer CDN like Limelight networks makes more sense for India.
@Idea, Execution, Profit - S3 is great for startups, but is not a substitute for a CDN.
I don’t think India needs a India specific CDN, at least at this time. That being said, ground work for CDN companies should most likely start
soon.
@Mehul - Didn’t know Akamai was has a node in India. Akamai is suitable for bigger organizations like you mentioned. There is still need for a company to CDNize the long tail. Companies like Voxel, Cachefly need to have a node in India.
Tata Communication Ltd has launched its Global Content Delivery Network last month. I can bet its better than Akamai and Limelight.
For more info you can get in touch with me at s.sahoo2002@gmail.com
Media Portals online may need the CDN service. Learning Management Portals need this service. Honestly even if we end up co-locating servers the issue would be sorted to a great extend. Hosting 5-15 servers is a cheaper resolution. All it needs is basic software to manage this or the professional services of a Managed service provider.
Steps to evaluate if you need a CDN service.
1. Is your own firewall slowing the website? (20-30% probability Yes get an expert for the same. Use tool like web trends)
2. Did the team see the effect of hardware accelerator solution ( citrix, riverbed) (15-20% Performance improvement)
3. How much data traffic is legitimate (20% of traffic ends u being null scans, etc..). At times close to 40% of the load is generated due to this ill-legitimate load.
4. Did you test by actually co-locating/separating the content server from the parent side before approaching a CDN player?
5. Can the CDN leader’s ( supposedly a consultant in this space?) assure you a ROI? ( 100% probability No)?
6. Can you derive a measurable (in number) SLA every month to assure you of the legitimate/acceptable end user activity/traffic assuming they are the 1st line of defense. Is this a generic rule based solution?
8. Last mile connectivity ( connectivity speed at end users end) is the reason why a website is slow.This may contribute to close to 50% of the reason for a slow download/page view .
CDN services may not be able to solve this but surely do help ONLY incase your audience is outside India
From pt 1-3 considering that 50% of this issue resides at Server end one should rethink going in for a CDN service. Do a good check.
The only solution is to keep pages light, switch on compression, separate the servers having content(jpeg) from the html pages and use a good deployment technique
Humble thougths above, tested and shared with all.
Enjoy