Qwilt Takes Open Video Caching for University of Alaska

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Qwilt, the leading provider of online video delivery and open video caching solutions, has deployed its technology on University of Alaska’s bandwidth-heavy network to help their IT administrators reduce networking costs and improve Quality of Experience (QoE) for students. From streaming Netflix to watching live events on Twitch, Qwilt’s open cache technology has enabled faster, higher quality online streaming video content across multiple University of Alaska campuses.

University networks are increasingly congested from streaming entertainment and educational content, which burdens network administrators with mounting costs and leaves students frustrated with constant stream re-buffering or long waits when upgrading to the newest iOS release. Qwilt is solving the over-the-top (OTT) video problem for leading universities nationwide, and University of Alaska’s experience is yet another example of how Qwilt’s innovation is changing the way colleges deliver and consume streaming video. As a public university with large and geographically distributed campuses, University of Alaska looked to Qwilt to provide an open caching solution that would help them offload Netflix, the top source of streaming video on their campus network, in addition to many other streaming video sites. By offloading these video streams to an open cache deployed on the campus network, the University of Alaska is now able to reduce expensive internet transit fees that would otherwise continue to rise.

“In the past, the university was challenged with finding a solution that could cache all of Netflix’s content coming through the network,” said Britton Anderson, senior network communications specialist at University of Alaska. “With Qwilt’s technology, we now offload about 60% of Netflix traffic locally and experience optimal playback, no buffering issues and continual HD viewing. The Netflix streaming experience is so seamless, it feels like we are watching local content. Qwilt has a better technology than any other caching solution we’ve tried – put simply: it just works.”

In addition to Netflix, Apple and Windows updates on University of Alaska’s campus are also now considered a non-issue by network administrators. Qwilt’s solution has increased the “perceived speed” so much, even the students can feel the difference. Some students at the university, impressed with its new open caching technology, have recently commented on how the campus network must be performing faster because the iOS 8 updates download so quickly.

Qwilt’s technology is purpose-built to help network administrators handle the onslaught of online video traffic universities face every day. Qwilt’s platform identifies the most popular live and on-demand streaming video content and uses its open caching technology to deliver that content directly to the user on the campus network. “As online video traffic on university networks continue to grow, there is an urgent need for IT administrators to optimize video streaming in the classroom and across the campus,” said Alon Maor, CEO and co-founder of Qwilt. “Qwilt’s open cache solution is providing University of Alaska, and many other schools nationwide, with best-in-class technology that is deployed within hours and achieves ROI within months, enabling them to conquer any online video problems that arise in their network. The end result benefits the campus network’s entire ecosystem, starting with administrators managing the network and continuing down to the college students who are consuming streaming video.”

Qwilt Inc.