Users have little patience for applications and websites that don’t deliver near-instantaneous performance, like videos that don’t load immediately. That means companies need a sound strategy for reliably, rapidly delivering content where it needs to go.

Content delivery networks (CDNs) present a viable solution to speeding up delivery of all sorts of content. And companies are recognizing that performance is a major driver their business, as the CDN market is expected to grow from $7.47 billion in 2017 to $30.89 billion by 2022, a healthy compound annual growth rate of 32.8%.

But delivering the content is only half the battle – organizations also need a place to store the source files. That’s why Wasabi has partnered with innovative CDN providers including Cloudflare, Fastly, and Limelight Networks. Clients can employ Wasabi’s inexpensive, high-performance, exabyte-scale cloud storage for origin storage while using our partners’ CDN offerings to deliver content to end users—fast.

A number of factors are driving the need for better performing CDNs, including the increasing use of 4K video content as well as over-the-top (OTT) media services such as Netflix and Hulu. At the same time, websites are becoming more complex, with heavy use of graphics-intensive features such as animation and video. Companies are also turning to video for internal purposes, including online meetings and training. And users expect to be able to consume all this content from any device, no matter where they are.

CDNs help improve performance by caching content in various edge data centers, closer to the end users who want to access it. That reduces latency, effectively speeding up the performance of websites, video streams and the like. Some CDN providers also offer optimization services to speed up delivery of large images and other files.

All those website files, videos, images and other objects can be stored cost-effectively with Wasabi hot cloud storage, at prices 80% less than AWS S3, yet with performance faster than the competition. Wasabi can act as a CDN origin server, interfacing with the CDN as a combined solution. (With other storage providers, using a CDN would also reduce egress charges by eliminating redundant transmissions. But Wasabi has no egress or API fees so that’s a moot point.)

Education
Institutions of higher education are increasingly taking their lessons online, which can mean streaming video and images to hundreds or thousands of students across the globe. With a CDN, schools get high availability and redundancy for their content, since it’s cached in multiple places around the world. CDNs can also ensure high performance for websites and mobile applications, which is table stakes as schools try to attract students.

Media & Entertainment
OTT service providers routinely use CDNs to stream content to millions of far-flung end users. (Netflix went the extra mile and built its own CDN.) Movie studios and production companies may employ a CDN to deliver large files to the various teams involved in making a movie come to life, such as special effects companies. As entertainment companies increasingly broadcast content over the web, they will need a CDN to lend a hand and ensure good performance.

Public Sector
Government agencies often have to reach audiences around the globe from their websites, which may have critical information for those looking to visit, move to or do business with another country. In periods of emergency, such as a natural disaster, certain web sites may experience a sudden flood of traffic from citizens and businesses that need help. In such instances, a CDN can ensure a quality experience for all visitors, wherever they may be.

Store and deliver dynamic web site content
Many organizations have websites that change frequently. Retailers might post an array of new offers, for example, including videos demonstrating their wares. Media companies constantly publish new stories and videos. They need a way to distribute this bandwidth-intensive content to end users efficiently and reliably.

CDNs offer a great solution, by continually caching new content in various locations so it’s always close to any given end user. But companies also need a cost-effective way to store the original content, with the ability to efficiently deliver it to a CDN provider as needed.

With its single-tier, hot cloud storage, Wasabi provides the answer. All customer content is always readily available, at prices 80% less than AWS S3.  What’s more, it’s highly secure, as all Wasabi data is encrypted at rest and in motion. Wasabi is also infinitely scalable, able to handle as much content, including high-resolution video, as needed.

E-learning applications
Many companies offer e-learning programs, whether for internal users, customers or both. Such programs typically rely on video to deliver content and they must be able to deliver it to wherever employees or customers may be. For global companies, that means having to reach far-flung areas across the globe.

CDNs enable companies to deliver content wherever it needs to go, with the reliability and performance that e-learning demands. By allowing companies to avoid sending trainers physically all over the world,  CDNs can save companies lots of money What’s more, training can be on-demand, at times convenient for the end user.

With its ability to integrate with CDNs using standard HTTP/HTTPS methods, Wasabi is a great option for hosting original content objects. Wasabi offers hot cloud storage at prices 80% less than AWS S3, with faster performance speeds. Wasabi is also secure, infinitely scalable and highly reliable, delivering eleven nines (99.999999999%) of object durability.

Internet broadcasting
Whether it’s baseball and football games, or special events like awards shows and benefit concerts, media and entertainment companies are increasingly looking to broadcast live video over the web to audiences around the globe. It’s a demanding endeavor because the broadcast must be able to scale to meet whatever the demand turns out to be, with high-definition (HD) quality that’s equal to that of television.

Such broadcasts demand the use of a CDN that can ensure HD delivery to sites around the globe. That requires not only caching but buffering to ensure uninterrupted delivery.

When the broadcast is over, it can be stored with Wasabi for later, on-demand access. At prices 80% less than AWS S3, it won’t break the bank to store even large, HD video files with Wasabi.