The company has interconnect deals in place with Comcast and other ISPs, and will likely spend $100 million this year.

Mitch Wagner, Executive Editor, Light Reading

July 31, 2014

2 Min Read
Apple Launches 'Massive' CDN -- Report

Apple has gone live with its own CDN spanning the US and Europe, with interconnect deals in place with multiple ISPs, including Comcast, according to reports.

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) is using the CDN to deliver some of its own content directly to consumers, with direct access to ISP networks, according to Day Rayburn, EVP of StreamingMedia.com, who watches the CDN business closely.

"From ISPs I have spoken with, they tell me Apple has put a massive amount of capacity in place, with many saying that Apple has more than 10x the capacity they are using today, all ready to go," says Rayburn. Apple can put the capacity to work on a round of software releases coming between now and the fall, including new versions of its desktop Mac OSX and the mobile iOS.

Apple is continuing to use Akamai Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM) for iTunes and Level 3 Communications Inc. (NYSE: LVLT) for Radio and app downloads, but plans to move much of that traffic to Apple's CDN, Rayburn says.

Rayburn says he calculates Apple has already put in multiple terabits per second capacity and will have invested more than $100 million in the CDN.

Switch on Light Reading's cable/video channel to learn more about those fancy moving pictures.

Apple is still working on plans to develop an all-in-one box for live and on-demand TV, according to The Information. Apple engineers have been told to assume a 2015 launch, as Apple struggles to cut deals with cable companies and faces uncertainty due to the pending merger between Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC).

"Apple's vision has been to make any show available at any time--live broadcasts and old reruns alike--using remote storage," The Information says.

Apple has been rumored to be working on this next-generation Apple TV a long time. Cable companies see a deal with Apple as a way to potentially hang on to customers, but on the other hand they fear Apple taking over the customer relationship, The Information says.

— Mitch Wagner, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profileFollow me on Facebook, West Coast Bureau Chief, Light Reading. Got a tip about SDN or NFV? Send it to [email protected].

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About the Author(s)

Mitch Wagner

Executive Editor, Light Reading

San Diego-based Mitch Wagner is many things. As well as being "our guy" on the West Coast (of the US, not Scotland, or anywhere else with indifferent meteorological conditions), he's a husband (to his wife), dissatisfied Democrat, American (so he could be President some day), nonobservant Jew, and science fiction fan. Not necessarily in that order.

He's also one half of a special duo, along with Minnie, who is the co-habitor of the West Coast Bureau and Light Reading's primary chewer of sticks, though she is not the only one on the team who regularly munches on bark.

Wagner, whose previous positions include Editor-in-Chief at Internet Evolution and Executive Editor at InformationWeek, will be responsible for tracking and reporting on developments in Silicon Valley and other US West Coast hotspots of communications technology innovation.

Beats: Software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), IP networking, and colored foods (such as 'green rice').

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