Monday, June 4, 2012

Netflix Offers 100 Terabyte Content Caches to ISPs

Netflix is rolling out its own content delivery network. The plan is have ISPs deploy "Open Connect" content caches in their local data centers, or to peer with the Netflix Open Connect network at common Internet Exchanges, thereby delivering better streaming performance to end users and potentially saving upstream bandwidth for ISPs. Netflix is proposing to deliver either form of access with no cost to the ISP. The caches would have at least one 10 Gbps uplink to Netflix. All content management will be handled by Netflix.



Netflix is offering settlement-free peering in these interconnect point: Ashburn, VA; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; New York, NY; San Jose, CA; and London, UK.



The Netflix Open Connect Appliance is a server based on commodity PC components. It packs 100 terabytes of storage into 4u chassis. To achieve over 100 TB of storage, it uses 36 3TB SATA units. For system files and content updates it also has 1TB of flash memory. The appliance is packaged as a turn-key system. The ISP only needs to install it, connect a 10 Gbps optical cable, and it will start populating the content from the Netflix network.https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect

  • Netflix has previously announced CDN partnerships with Level 3 Communications. In April, Level 3 said that it was boosting its global CDN in part to better handle traffic from Netflix.