Cisco's new CDN platform traces its roots back to Comcast's open sourced CDN technology.

Mari Silbey, Senior Editor, Cable/Video

January 6, 2016

2 Min Read
Shaw Selects Cisco's New Open CDN Platform

LAS VEGAS -- CES 2016 -- Along with launching its Open Media Distribution "cloud-ready" CDN platform at CES, Cisco has announced that Canada-based Shaw Communications will be the first company to deploy the new content delivery solution.

But wait, there's more.

The new CDN platform didn't spring wholly formed from Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO)'s service provider group. The technology's lineage traces back to Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK)'s CDN solution which that operator open sourced, allowing Cisco to build on the baseline platform to create its own content delivery product. (See Comcast Debuts CDN as Video Eats the World and Cable Opens Up to Open Source.)

For those keeping track at home, this marks the second major Comcast-based technology (more or less) that Shaw Communications Inc. has adopted. The operator is also licensing X1 after scrapping its own in-house platform for multiscreen IPTV. (See Shaw Licenses X1, Proves Comcast's Influence.)

Back to Cisco -- the company has now officially unveiled not only its Open Media Distribution platform, but also a Cloud Object Storage (COS) solution designed for cloud DVR and other time-shifted TV. Both new offerings are part of Cisco's Virtualized Video Processing (V2P) platform, and are further evidence of the vendor's commitment to virtualizing, cloudifying and open(ifying?) almost everything.

Not long ago, Light Reading -- with partner European Advanced Networking Test Center AG (EANTC) -- validated some of the components of Cisco's V2P technology. Given limited time, full functionality and performance were impossible to test. However, Light Reading did verify Cisco's V2P deployment on OpenStack and started to register a COS cluster to the Cisco's V2P controller. The testing team also created a virtual content channel using Cisco's graphical user interface, validating that the GUI worked as advertised and made for an efficient way of configuring new content services. (See Cisco NFVi Evaluation: The Full Picture.)

More to come on V2P, and Cisco's other virtual network functions (VNFs). Stay tuned.

— Mari Silbey, Senior Editor, Cable/Video, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Mari Silbey

Senior Editor, Cable/Video

Mari Silbey is a senior editor covering broadband infrastructure, video delivery, smart cities and all things cable. Previously, she worked independently for nearly a decade, contributing to trade publications, authoring custom research reports and consulting for a variety of corporate and association clients. Among her storied (and sometimes dubious) achievements, Mari launched the corporate blog for Motorola's Home division way back in 2007, ran a content development program for Limelight Networks and did her best to entertain the video nerd masses as a long-time columnist for the media blog Zatz Not Funny. She is based in Washington, D.C.

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