Amazon has been at the forefront of the development of cloud computing services and it moved out to the edge of that cumulus today with its announcement of a content delivery network (CDN).
In a blog note, Werner Vogels, Amazon chief technology officer, explained that offering online services through the cloud of the internet should not be as nebulous as it sounds.
Customers and developers need to know from what location they are being served in order to have workarounds for potential crashes and to position their data close to where it is needed to improve delivery speeds.
Amazon Web Services has been expanding into Europe and Asia to address these issues and today Mr Vogels said it had now set up a network of “edge” locations on three continents that would bring it even closer to customers.
An edge network has been the delivery model for CDNs such as industry leaders Akamai and Limelight and it is no surprise that Amazon is trying to emulate them.
However, its model is different and potentially disruptive for the entire CDN sector. As industry analyst Dan Rayburn explains, Amazon will not offer streaming or live broadcasting initially to compete with Akamai and Limelight in winning business from big media companies.
Instead, it is targeting smaller players and start-ups, thereby threatening the smaller CDNs, says Om Malik.
Amazon will force much needed transparency in industry pricing with a pay-as-you-go usage model with no commitments or upfront contracts needed.
Smaller companies will be happy to have Amazon hosting their content and will be able to establish the service with a simple software hook-up.
Amazon is perfectly capable of upgrading its service to streaming later and taking on the big boys, but for now the service is in its beta-testing phase, with a planned launch by the end of the year.
