Cloud Computing: Principles and Paradigms

Chapter 20. BUILDING CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORKS USING CLOUDS

JAMES BROBERG

INTRODUCTION

Numerous "storage cloud" providers (or "Storage as a Service") have recently emerged that can provide Internet-enabled content storage and delivery capabilities in several continents, offering service-level agreement (SLA)-backed performance and uptime promises for their services. Customers are charged only for their utilization of storage and transfer of content (i.e., a utility computing [1] model), which is typically on the order of cents per gigabyte. This represents a large paradigm shift away from typical hosting arrangements that were prevalent in the past, where average customers were locked into hosting contracts (with set monthly/yearly fees and excess data charges) on shared hosting services like DreamHost [2]. Larger enterprise customers typically utilized pervasive and high-performing Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) like Akamai [3, 4] and Limelight, who operate extensive networks of "edge" servers that deliver content across the globe. In recent years it has become increasingly difficult for competitors to build and maintain competing CDN infrastructure, and a once healthy landscape of CDN companies has been reduced to a handful via mergers, acquisitions, and failed companies [5]. However, far from democratizing the delivery of content, the most pervasive remaining CDN provider (Akamai) is priced out of the reach of most small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), government agencies, ...