“Since last year, Apple’s been hard at work building out their own CDN and now those efforts are paying off,” Dan Rayburn reports for Streaming Media. “Recently, Apple’s CDN has gone live in the U.S. and Europe and the company is now delivering some of their own content, directly to consumers. In addition, Apple has interconnect deals in place with multiple ISPs, including Comcast and others, and has paid to get direct access to their networks. Doing trace routes on OS X downloads from multiple ISPs now shows them coming from directly from Apple’s CDN.”
“From ISPs I have spoken with, they tell me Apple has put a massive amount of capacity in place, with many saying that Apple has more than 10x the capacity they are using today, all ready to go,” Rayburn reports. “With Apple planning to release the beta version of their next desktop OS today, Yosemite (10.10), and with iOS 8 expected to come out this fall, Apple’s putting in place a lot of capacity to support upcoming software releases.”
“Apple’s already started using their own CDN much faster than I expected. The pace of their build out and amount of money they are spending on infrastructure is incredible. Based on my calculations, Apple has already put in place multiple terabits per second of capacity and by the end of this year, will have invested well more than $100M in their CDN build out,” Rayburn reports. “Apple already controls the hardware, the OS (iOS/OS X) as well as the iTunes/App store platforms. Right now they control the entire customer experience, except for the way content is delivered to their devices, and they are quickly working to change that. While Apple doesn’t own the last mile, paying to connect directly to it (in some places) and delivering content from their own servers allows them much more control over the user experience, especially for cloud based services. Over time, this is something that will make the experience and performance for consumers even better – and Apple’s only just getting started.”
Much more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple’s content delivery network is reportedly live and it’s positively massive – July 31, 2014
Apple negotiating paid interconnect deals with ISPs for their own Content Delivery Network – May 20, 2014
AAPL The startup Tinker Toy computer maker. Suck eggs Microdog ANALists.
Not a single professional talking head analyst can give you a real count of ALL the billion dollar server farms Apple has built and is building all around the world. Some are aware of the 5 server farms Apple has already talked about. Some are even solar powered with fuel cell power storage and can be easily seen from the sky.
Tim and the board should do their end of fiscal year report from one unannounced sight. Kind of a “Where is Waldo” or Easter Egg hunt event. Tell the talking heads that if they guess correctly, they can get a one hour interview with any top Apple employee or a sight tour of that server farm. There choice. Get these clueless idiots to start understanding Apple instead of just peeing on Apple legs each quarter.
Great idea, that would possibly backfire. First the talking heads would never guess correctly and be way off and you can imagine all the FUD that would come from that…”Apple cannot meet analysts estimates, stock to drop.”
Even if someone got the number right would you really want to submit Tim Cook to an hour with one of these guys? Ah maybe you would, after all the United States does have a proviso for torture I believe.
Remember the twist on the old adage, “You can lead an analyst to water butt you can’t stop their shïte.”
Tinker Toy maker that everyone tries to copy, Microsoft, Google, Samdung, etc.
“This blue E is the internet, and this logo is the interapple.”
This is in reality another new product that Apple is introducing this year. It’s not just physical objects, like the iPhone, or software, like Yosemite or Swift. It’s infrastructure, as described above, and agreements like those with IBM. There’s clearly something going on, but we’re only getting a glimpse of what Apple is becoming. It’s much more focused than Google, fiddling with glasses and driverless cars, or Amazon. I didn’t forget Samsung. They’re not even in the race, since all they do is copy. They’re already so far behind, it’s only a matter of time until they assume their rightful place as maker of second rate hand sets that don’t do much more than make phone calls and post selfies on facebook.
When you spend wisely on infrastructure, you are doing the right thing for sustainability and future growth.
Get a clue from this you do nothings in the US Congress!
Go Apple!!!
dear Tim, please put the Cable companies out of business. Buy Comcast, fire EVERYONE, and make it work the way it should. Thanks.
This is wonderful… BUT the problem for most Apple customers has never been the backbone services that the in-house CDN will bypass (because that is cheaper), but “the last mile.” Apple can now deliver data like a firehose to the local ISPs, but many of them use straws from the local telephone exchange or cable headend to their users. Even if the speeds from Apple’s servers to the Verizon (ex-GTE) phone building literally only a mile or so from my house were infinite, I would still be getting too little throughput across that last mile to support seamless HD video streaming. The geniuses at Apple need to be working on that problem.
Apple TV Anyone?
I look at this and get excited as a stockholder of AAPL. Steve said that he had finally figured it out before his death. This is evidence of the company following that idea. The last mile is all they need to conquer, but I Apple like other content providers will have to be allowed to utilize the infrastructure in place or they will partner with the likes of Comcast to install their network to the homes of Americans. With this ability to build out they can drive the content. Who needs to work on getting contracts with all the cable services when you can go directly to HBO, MTV, ESPN, Disney Channel (wait they are part of that), etc. and set up agreements to stream their TV channels directly to consumers through Apple?
Apple will work with the providers and build their own cable internet system and deliver the content to the customers they know are there to buy a la carte offerings. They will control the bandwidth and content directly with the providers.
This is my predicition…what do you think?
exactly
I think Apples CDN has less to do with entertainment and more to do with data. Apples cloud services especially their new backup plans along with the iWatch which looks to be a sensing device will need a very constant, fast and reliable data transmission connection. You can’t rely on your ISP for that.
Did AppleTV just officially stop being a “hobby”?
BOOM!
=:~)
Not one of you has mentioned the onerous consequences of paid interconnect to ISPs which will have deep and negative ramifications for ALL Internet users.
jay? jay?
Where are the call’s for Tim Cook’s firing?
I think maybe even jay has realized that his rants are in process of getting the “elephant stepping on a bug” treatment.
Off topic: I finally figured out what’s going to kill Samsung – Xiaomi. They’ve copied Samsung’s business model, and now they’re going to start eating Samsung’s low end of the phone market. And Samsung can’t sue them because they’re copying Apple.
This should be fun to watch.
I’ll make the popcorn! 🙂
Is this the new ” Xosumi”