Review: Jet Stream VDO-X
As Jet Stream is receiving interest from international locations outside of Europe, some of which have a limited ability to deliver streams between networks, VDO-X may provide the glue to tie together disparate locations.
One customer with this type of problem, for instance, is 3G Media in Russia, which owns a number of TV and radio channels that are mainly distributed via satellite because the terrestrial networks don’t yet cover the immense area.
Russia spans 11 time zones, with many broadcasters only operating in a single time zone segment. As a result, 3G Media is convinced that IPTV and WebTV are going to be a serious alternative given the ability to schedule, play out, and target precisely.
“The top dozen Russian cities actually have great broadband access connectivity,” said van der Ziel, “but the interconnects are uncertain enough that guaranteeing a single stream delivery between cities is difficult.”
Using the VDO-X model of targeting CDNs into ISP points of presence, 3G Media is rolling out web server hardware in cooperation with the larger ISPs in the top dozen Russian cities, and Jet Stream is loading XL Media Server software on the delivery servers, with VDO-X on central servers.
VDO-X trickles down the new (popular) content to the edge PoPs. Redirects, another feature of VDO-X management, can then be used to redirect users to stream content from their local PoP.
Products and Accounts
The VDO-X panel’s Products section is designed so that Jet Stream’s CDN client/operator can create a variety of end-user packages, similar to the way that a web-hosting reseller package can be branded and products customised.
Core, Service Level Agreement, and Add-on products can be specified, as can per-gigabyte or flat-rate costs and disk and traffic quotas.
Once a product is chosen, the client CDN’s end users can then set up their accounts, gaining access to statistics and logs based on what options have been opened by the client CDN. Additional control is in place for Jet Stream’s clients to allow them to rapidly turn on free trials and then convert these free trials into paid accounts. This allows enterprise customers to get their content onto a CDN service rapidly without the hassle of replicating setup when they are moved to a paid account.
Small business packages can also be created, and Jet Stream’s CDN customers can choose to create multiple CDNs to handle a variety of customer types.
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