Fastly's CDN Solution: A Game Changer for api.video's Global Expansion
Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Middleware & Microservices
- Sensors - Camera / Video Systems
Applicable Industries
- Cement
- Transportation
Applicable Functions
- Logistics & Transportation
- Sales & Marketing
Use Cases
- Construction Management
- Last Mile Delivery
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
api.video is a European-based company that helps businesses easily encode, deliver, and host videos. The company provides an end-to-end service that covers encoding, delivery, and storage, making it easy for businesses to add videos to a website, app, CMS, or software. api.video serves a wide range of customers, including eLearning providers, C-marketplaces, and social networks. The company is ambitious and prefers to run its own infrastructure for greater flexibility and cost management. After securing Series A funding in summer 2022, api.video aimed to extend its reach in key markets in Europe, the US, and beyond.
The Challenge
api.video, a European-based company that provides video encoding, delivery, and hosting services, faced significant challenges in scaling its video delivery via its Content Delivery Network (CDN). The company was using a niche CDN provider, CDNetworks, for its two data centers in Canada and Europe. However, the provider was unable to meet the growing demands of api.video. The company faced issues with poor cache performance under full load, especially during live streaming events. This issue was so severe that it restricted product access and hindered the company's scaling efforts. Additionally, the CDN provider only made logs accessible once per day, which made quick mitigation of any abuse impossible. The company also faced issues with opaque routing within its old CDN, which was suboptimal and offered no control. Furthermore, api.video wanted to leverage future features that the previous CDN provider would not allow due to lacking features or mandated policies. These features included supporting custom domains, domain referrer restrictions, the ability to control request log data, and support for the Cloud Data Management Capabilities (CDMC) framework and built-in optimizations for video use cases.
The Solution
To overcome these challenges, api.video initiated a robust benchmarking process to find a CDN with the technical capacity and global clout essential to drive its growth strategy. The company reached out to six potential vendors and shortlisted three providers: Fastly CDN, Cloudflare, and Akamai. The benchmarking process covered features, cost, and performance. After a thorough evaluation, Fastly CDN emerged as the clear winner in all key criteria. Fastly CDN offered native integration with Kafka, efficient caching invalidation, support for custom domain features, and access to real-time data. These features were crucial for api.video as they were building a new Kafka-based analytics pipeline. The migration from CDNetworks to Fastly CDN was smooth, with no customer service interruption, no drop of VOD or live stream, and no spike in errors. Fastly CDN also allowed api.video to configure private video features and shielding features in the context of a worldwide origin infrastructure.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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