As a CDN operator, we are continually pioneering new technologies in order to improve performance and lower our cost base.
In this context, we have launched several generations of CDN PoPs. The first generation connected the CDN servers to several carriers via Leaseweb’s routers. The router ports found the best and fastest route available. In September 2014, we introduced a second generation of PoPs, which complemented the first. The second generation connected the CDN directly to one carrier. This saves costs because the Leaseweb routers are no longer in between. Unfortunately, in this scenario there is no redundancy advantage since we connected to one carrier only. So even though the CDN PoPs complemented our platform and performed well, they did not allow us to grow at the pace we needed to.
Finally, we can now proudly present our third generation multi-carrier PoP combining the best of both worlds. Using smart, pioneering SDN technologies that we developed in-house, we are exploiting switches that are actually performing routing tasks without the need of using expensive routers.
The multi-carrier PoP routes traffic to either the Leaseweb network infrastructure (from which we use the peering destinations) or directly to a variety of other carriers available according to their performance. This way, the multi-carrier rack boosts content speed delivery to end users, while at the same time reducing infrastructure and network costs to the bone.
Furthermore, the cherry on top of the cake is that the new multi-carrier PoPs will host our dynamic Anycast DNS platform. The combination of both actions shows improvement by a factor 3 of our content delivery performance both in throughput and latency.
The multi-carrier rack will first be deployed in Miami this August. The rest of the CDN platform will be fully migrated in the following months. By the end of the year, all of Leaseweb’s customers worldwide will be able to reap the benefits and get more speed and offload than ever before!