Limelight Networks’ loss to rival Akamai in a patent lawsuit has forced Limelight to rewrite the content delivery network software it licensed to Microsoft Corp. In an SEC filing Friday, Limelight (LLNW) reported that it had amended its agreement with Microsoft (MSFT) to address a February jury verdict in which Limelight was ordered to pay Akami (AKAM) $45 million for infringing its patents.

Microsoft is building its own content delivery network (CDN), with Limelight providing software and engineering support. The August 2007 agreement between the companies was updated on Oct. 1 to address the Akamai ruling.

Source: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/10/05/limelight-reworks-software-for-microsoft-cdn/

Over the last few weeks, I am getting more and more customers asking me why Akamai (AKAM) is quoting one price for streaming delivery and another price for HTTP based video delivery. And I’m not talking about Flash streaming where some CDNs still charge an Adobe license fee. Even with Windows Media, Akamai is charging a higher price to deliver content via a streaming media protocol as opposed to delivering content via HTTP.

I don’t know of any other CDN in the market that is pricing video delivery this way and as a result, I see Akamai not winning a lot of new deals in the market as customers don’t understand why they should be “penalized” for doing streaming over downloads. Why would Akamai care what protocol a customer is using?

Does it cost Akamai more to deliver streaming on their network versus downloads? It shouldn’t. If this was simply about Akamai charging more for its services, no problem. It’s a free economy and if you can get more for your services, more power to you. But that is not what this is about. This is about Akamai charging more for one protocol over another and not explaining to customers why it is the only CDN in the market doing this.

Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/98498-akamai-why-charge-more-for-streaming-video-delivery-vs-http-delivery

New York, New York - (The Hosting News) - October 3, 2008 - NTT America, Inc. (NTTA), a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation and network integrator, hosting and web services firm, has debuted the launch of its newest U.S. network Point of Presence (PoP), in Dallas, Texas.

Yoshimasa Hashimoto, Vice President, Arcstar Business Unit, NTT America noted, ”This new investment demonstrates NTT Communications’ commitment to the U.S. telecommunications market. By placing our own network node in the high-growth Texas region, we enhance our ability to support both U.S. companies expanding to Asia-Pacific as well as international firms operating in the U.S market.”

The recent addition, which was made available on September 15, 2008, further supports NTT Communications’ growing global network coverage offering. The Dallas PoP will support Arcstar Managed Bandwidth and MPLS-based Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP-VPN) services, the Company’s flagship managed network services for global enterprise customers. Extending NTT America’s dedicated network infrastructure to Dallas will enable NTT Communications to offer an increasing range of highly reliable and cost-effective services to companies operating in the South-Central U.S.

NTT America is North America’s natural gateway to the Asia-Pacific region, with strong capabilities in the U.S. market. NTT America is the U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation, the global data and IP services arm of the Fortune Global 500 telecom leader: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT). NTT America provides world-class Enterprise Hosting, managed network, and IP networking services for enterprise customers and service providers worldwide. For additional information on NTT America, visit us on the Web at www.nttamerica.com.

Source: http://www.inftekhosting.com/blog/ntt-managed-hosting-firm-debuts-dallas-network-inftekhostingcom-hosted-kerio-email/

Internap Network Services Corporation (INAP) offers a suite of network optimization solutions that allow companies to transfer business-critical applications to the Internet. It offers products and services that optimize Internet applications for e-commerce, customer relationship management (CRM), multimedia streaming, voice-over Internet-protocol (VoIP), virtual private networks (VPNs), and supply chain management.

Being a small player in a competitive industry, Internap has a relatively low revenue growth rate. Although the company has been gaining traction in its data colocation services, it is witnessing softness in its content delivery network business. Much of this has been caused by the weakening economy, which has forced INAP to trim its 2008 guidance twice.

Though the company has been making important upgrades to its CDN product, there has been a lackluster performance in the segment in the last few quarters. As such, we are initiating our coverage on INAP with a Sell rating and a price target of $2.50.

Source: http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/15001/Internap+Network+Initiated+a+Sell

Managed Hosting and CDN Provider Enhances Remote Access Control with Opengear’s Linux-Based CM4148

SANDY, Utah–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Opengear (www.opengear.com), a leading provider of next generation out-of-band management solutions, today announced that Voxel dot Net, Inc., a provider of managed hosting, content delivery network (CDN) and IP services, has implemented Opengear’s CM4148 console manager to provide out-of-band management of its network of dispersed servers.

“As we’ve expanded to more than 2,500 servers globally, Opengear’s out-of-band products have assisted us in implementing lights-out management across our international CDN and IP Network,” said Zachary Smith, President of Voxel. “And with our deep expertise in Linux, the Open-Sourced Software based Opengear products make sense from both a business and technical perspective.”

Source: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20081001005316&newsLang=en

Fox Interactive Media (newscorp.com/management/fim.html) has selected fiber-based communications provider Level 3 Communications (level3.com) to deliver video acquisition, transport, encoding and live streaming for all four of the 2008 US presidential debates online. According to Level 3’s announcement last week, the company’s Content Markets Group delivered live video of Friday’s debate in Oxford, Mississippi at mydebates.org presented by MySpace (myspace.com), also a division of NewsCorp (newscorp.com). Level 3’s video broadcast services will be used for the remaining three debates as well to redundant broadcast encoding centers and Fox Television affiliates. The company’s broadcast encoding centers encode the video feed in real-time and then oversee distribution via its content delivery network for live streaming with Adobe Flash.

Source: http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/092908_Level_3_Streams_Presidential_Debates.cfm

Consolidation in the content delivery space could be imminent, according to attendees at Streaming Media West last week. Given the more than 40 or so companies in the content delivery business, it seems inevitable that market consolidation would be on its way. But attendees at say merger and acquisition activity may begin sooner rather than later. There was clear talk of term sheets being passed about, which led one CDN exec at the show to quip, “Half the companies here are shopping themselves.” Another said that strategic talks between attendees dramatically could change the face of the conference in the next 12 months. “The big question, if you look around the room, is how many of these companies will be here next year,” he said.

While there’s no shortage of M&A rumors, what’s less clear is which companies are looking to buy, and what value they see in acquiring the competition. Some companies, like Mirror Image Internet Inc. , were very open about being in acquisition mode. According to Jim Hart, vice president of sales and marketing, Mirror Image is looking at several possible acquisitions, which could include adding new value-added services or adding assets in strategic markets, like Asia Pacific. Others say they’d prefer to remain on the sidelines while the market shakes out. Mark Hayes, vice president of business development for Highwinds Network Group Inc. , says he expects the majority of companies that are for sale to end up being sold in fire sales or asset sales. “We’ll wait for deals to fall into that bracket.”

Source: http://www.contentinople.com/author.asp?section_id=450&doc_id=164801

COSTA MESA, Calif. — BandCon, a content delivery solutions provider, has landed the 8th spot on the Inc. 500 Magazine, 2008 List of Fastest-Growing Private Companies in the Telecommunications category as well as #330 overall. BandCon offers a full suite of internet infrastructure services for companies with content rich web 2.0 sites such as MySpace, The Weather Channel, Neulion and Miniclip.com.

Founded in 2000, the company grew revenues 877.5% to $9.7M in 2007 and continues on that same pace as it delivers the products and services needed to support one of the fastest growing markets segments today - media rich content delivered over the internet.

Source: http://www.centredaily.com/business/technology/story/875251.html

www.internap.com - Internap Network Services Corporation Katie Eakins / Wanda Soler, 619-677-2700 (press) internap@lewispr.com or Andrew McBath, 404-865-7198 (investors) amcbath@internap.com Internap Network Services Corporation (NASDAQ: INAP), a global provider of end-to-end Internet business solutions, today announced it has expanded its relationship with NADAguides.com, a leading vehicle pricing and information Web site. NADAguides.com now
relies on Internap for the company’s Content Delivery Network (CDN), data center colocation and Performance IP(TM) networking services. This extension of Internap products was prompted by the expansion of the vehicle information and services offered at NADAguides.com, as well as the growth of NADAguides.com traffic to approximately six million visitors and more than 60 million page views each month.

Source: http://www.pr-inside.com/nadaguides-com-drives-six-million-unique-r838204.htm

Cisco Content Delivery System Integrated With Adobe Flash Streaming Technology Takes Consumer Video Experience to New Level, Bringing Multimedia Content to Multiple Screens

SAN JOSE, CA and BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, Sep 29, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — Cisco today announced that Telecom Italia has chosen the Cisco(R) Content Delivery System with Internet Streaming (CDS-IS) platform, with Adobe(R) Flash(R) streaming technology, to deliver live television channels and on-demand content through its Web portal, Yalp! ( www.yalp.it). With the CDS-IS platform and Adobe Flash technology, Telecom Italia can deliver high-quality, rich streaming media content to its viewers enabling them to watch TV shows on their laptops and PCs, accelerating the fusion of TV and the Internet. And because the CDS-IS system supports all major streaming and download formats, including the integrated native Adobe Flash Player, Telecom Italia now has the platform foundation to deliver “any stream to any screen” in any format. More and more, consumers are accessing content across PCs, PDAs, mobile phones and other devices. Through the deployment of the Cisco CDS-IS and the integration of Adobe Flash technology, Telecom Italia subscribers can view interactive video online with a hassle-free, instant-on Web video experience.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/telecom-italia-selects-cisco-adobe/story.aspx?guid={7EF9C3C0-8FDE-4D25-BE76-AE61227196B6}&dist=hppr