Google Media CDN — content delivery game changer?
Google has launched the general availability of Media CDN, a content delivery platform using the same infrastructure as YouTube. Google says that the fundamental advantage of the Media CDN is Google’s network, which covers more than 200 countries and more than 1,300 cities.
The size and growing importance of streaming becomes indubitable when we see the stats:
According to The Global Internet Phenomena Report, streaming video accounted for 53.7% of internet bandwidth traffic, up by 4.8% from a year ago.
What makes Google Media CDN stand out from the competition?
1. Infrastructure
Media CDN will leverage the infrastructure built to deliver YouTube content, which reaches more than 2 billion users.
2. Tailored experience
Media CDN tailors delivery protocols to individual users and network conditions and includes out-of-the-box support for QUIC (HTTP/3), TLS 1.3, and BBR, optimizing for last-mile delivery.
Media CDN shows industry-leading offload rates. Google says that with tiered caching, the number of calls to origin is minimized. This reduces the performance or capacity stress in the content origin and lowers costs.
3. Monetization opportunities
Media CDN has ad insertion tools that allow customers to inject video content with ads.
4. Tools for an immersive experience
The service is built with AI/ML to power interactive experiences, like real-time stats for sports fans, virtual billboards for shoppers, and more.
Leveraging the same infrastructure as YouTube, Google Cloud’s Media CDN combines geographic reach, API-first architecture and integration with the Cloud operations suite. This is a transformative move that is aligned with the future of the CDN industry.” — Ghassan Abdo, Research Vice President, WW Telecom, Virtualization and CDN, IDC
5. Security
Google has years of experience delivering video securely and reliably.
The platform includes deep integration with Google Cloud Armor for planet-scale DDoS protection and a rich set of capabilities to detect and mitigate attacks, prevent abuse, manage risk, and comply with regulatory or licensing requirements.
