The deal means Juniper will now have the capability to offer a CDN package to carriers by integrating BitGravity’s technology with its own Media Flow Solution to allow the delivery of online content. In addition to carriers, Juniper said its latest investment is catered to providing better content services for online media companies, service providers and CDN companies. The deal further means Juniper has access to a fully comprehensive content infrastructure for its customers.
“Customers are experiencing exponential growth in online video traffic, with aggregate traffic doubling every six months according to leading analysts,” said Tom Fountain, general manager, content and media business unit at Juniper Networks. “Our service provider customers demand innovative solutions to improve the efficiency of content delivery and enable new revenue sources. This agreement with Tata Communications strengthens our content and media solution portfolio with a highly optimised and battle tested management layer.”
2011 saw an increasing number of carriers looking at more investment in the CDN space, with two major carriers licensing Edgecast’s platform alone. Verizon also made a substantial investment in the enterprise space through acquiring Terremark which is expected to enhance its content play, and global vendor Alcatel-Lucent made its intentions clear in the space early when it acquired CDN platform Velocix in 2009
Tata’s acquisition of BitGravity, also completed last year has already proved fruitful on the back of its deal with Juniper, but such carrier activity in the space could prove a detriment for growth for traditional CDN providers Akamai and Limelight Networks, particularly if carriers build their own platforms, or acquire smaller CDN companies that are yet to go private. Limelight Networks shares dropped by 1.9% at the end of last year.
Juniper’s integrated service with BitGravity is expected to launch later this year.
