The Need for Better Data Center Connectivity
CacheFly had a very successful and growing CDN business, with fifty locations deployed and dozens more planned. Their expanding global footprint was an important part of their success, allowing Cachefly to service the needs of global enterprises by reaching their customers on six continents. However, expansion came with other challenges, namely, how to deliver world class quality of service across a network that included a diverse set of players, including providers that varied by region.
Data center interconnects remained a persistent challenge. The company relied on a patchwork of carriers and transit providers for connecting their data centers, an approach that became more problematic with growth.
“The path we were on was always too costly, too slow, and not nimble enough for what we needed for our business, so we avoided connecting our data centers by relying on transit, rather than solving our transport problem head-on.”
Matt Levine, CacheFly’s Chief Technology Officer
An Elegant Solution
CacheFly decided that it was time to fix their transport problem by upgrading the connections between their data centers. They wanted a provider who was close to their many locations, could deliver maximum throughput, and agile enough to accommodate their rapidly evolving needs. In considering their options, they were immediately impressed by the responsiveness and the scale of PacketFabric’s network.
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I am still amazed that PacketFabric lets me point and click and provision a circuit between two of my data centers in minutes.”
Matt Levine, CacheFly’s Chief Technology Officer
CacheFly eventually chose PacketFabric when they realized its network gave CacheFly the flexibility to choose and deploy multi-100Gb, carrier grade bandwidth globally and on demand, without the cumbersome processes and delays introduced by carriers.
“We picked PacketFabric because they made it easy. They were the only vendor who allowed us to connect any of our facilities instantly and for it to work right away. They took the pain out of a process that, otherwise, would have had us connecting this huge sprawl of a network together in a lengthy and piecemeal fashion.”
Matt Levine, CacheFly’s Chief Technology Officer
A Path to the Future
5G mobile, 8K video, and emerging markets will ensure the continued growth of data usage for the foreseeable future. Forward thinking CDN providers are now reimagining how their networks will look and behave. They are preparing for a time when content will need to be shared across many more edge data centers, all supported by a network of agile interconnects.
“We need to build really deep and fast caches in fewer places that are better connected to the edges of the network than ever before. That’s the network we are working on, and PacketFabric is a huge part of the solution for us. We plan to add 30 sites to our footprint over the next 12 to 18 months, and we expect PacketFabric to be in every one of them.”
Matt Levine, CacheFly’s Chief Technology Officer
About Cachefly
CacheFly is a global Content Delivery Network with data centers in fifty-five cities around the globe. The twenty-year-old company has a focus on media, gaming, and entertainment and prides itself in its promise of video quality with less than one second of latency, gaming with zero lag, and smart image optimization for extra fast webpage downloads on any device.
“PacketFabric had the most reach, the best coverage, and the best team that we could grow with. Now it’s gotten to the point where, when we’re evaluating new colo markets, if PacketFabric is not in one of those buildings, we’re probably going to go somewhere else.”
Matt Levine, CacheFly’s Chief Technology Officer