Limelight
Networks CDN Services

by Faulkner Staff

Docid: 00021409

Publication Date: 2105

Report Type: PRODUCT

Preview

Limelight’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) Services use one of the world’s largest private networks.
Connected directly to approximately 135 access networks around the world – the same
networks that enable the Internet – Limelight claims its CDN provides 95+
Terabits of egress per second when downloading a Web page, software applications, video,
or other content.

Description

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Limelight Networks offers its content delivery network
(CDN) service, which is built upon the Limelight Orchestrate Platform,
delivering on-demand or streaming video, software files, games, or entire Web sites.

Related
Faulkner Reports

Akamai CDN Services Product Profile

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Profile

Amazon Web Services Product
Profile

Level 3
Communications CDN Services Product
Profile

Content
Delivery Networks Tutorial

Content Delivery Network

In a CDN, content is
copied and distributed – or replicated – to strategically dispersed servers. When a specific page or file is requested by
an authorized user, the CDN identifies the nearest server (as determined
by the minimum number of nodes between the server and the user) and disseminates
the information. By ensuring that content is delivered from the nearest
source, data transit and system response time are minimized.

The concept is analogous to a product
distribution network in which an enterprise maintains three product warehouses,
each stocked with the same merchandise. One warehouse is located in New
York, another in Chicago, and the third in Los Angeles. If a customer
located in Philadelphia orders a product, the product is shipped from the
nearest warehouse (in this case, New York). Similarly, if a customer in
Phoenix orders the same product, the product is dispatched from the warehouse
closest to Phoenix (namely, Los Angeles).

Vendor

Name: Limelight Networks, Inc.
Headquarters
1465 N. Scottsdale Road
Suite 400
Scottsdale, AZ 85257
(602) 850-5000
(866) 200-5463
Web: https://www.limelight.com/
Type of Vendor: Content Delivery Network Services Provider
Founded: 2001
Service Areas: Worldwide
Stock Symbol: LLNW (Nasdaq)

Entering the CDN market in 2001, Limelight Networks operates a vast
telecommunications and content delivery network. As of 2021, the network has
more than 130 points of presence (POPs) in nearly 80 locations.around the globe,
with another eight in the planning stage. Points of presence can be defined as delivery locations.

Limelight’s CDN services are built upon the Orchestrate Platform. This platform consists of
thousands of servers running cloud-based software integrated with a large
private network to provide dynamic content delivery and cloud security.
Organizations can deliver digital content to any device in any location.

Limelight’s Content Delivery Services are connected directly to hundreds of access networks around the world – the same
networks that enable the Internet – Limelight’s CDN provides a better, i.e.,
faster, experience when downloading a Web page, a software application, a video,
or other small or large content element, with 95+ Tbps egress capacity and 100GbE private fiber backbone.

Content
Delivery Services can handle demands on the order of a presidential inauguration or the
Olympics. Limelight uses its own CDN to deliver its products and services to
customers worldwide.

Limelight’s CDN service offerings and their features are outlined in Table
1.

Table 1. Limelight Networks’ CDN Services and Features
Product	Features
Limelight Orchestrate Platform	Consisting of a global, private IP network, the Orchestrate Platform promotes cache efficiency and connection management features so that content is always available. Caching all Web site content. Supports IPv4 and IPv6 Internet protocols. Offers granular control over traffic shape, failover origins, and multi-CDN workflows. Supports HTTP 1.1 and HTTP/2. Accelerates content between the client and the CDN edge through TCP optimizations, compression and connections. Manages origin selection, connectivity, and failover during content delivery. Delivers HTTP streaming while decreasing the load on origin servers. Uses a set of dedicated IP addresses for delivery of zero-rated traffic into carriers. Content with high abandon rates can be rate limited. HTTP Request and Response headers can be customized to control content caching and boost analytics.
SmartPurge	This CDN purging system works in near real-time to boot stale content and functions through APIs or a graphical user interface. Once a purge request is received, that content will no longer be served to end users. Purges can be conducted at any portion of the Origin URl, path, filename, or extension. Items can be purged by content tag. Prior to a purge, administrators can conduct a dry run to view statistics on the content that will be removed. All purged content is permanently removed from Limelight CDN. Purging parameters are configurable. Dashboards allow for viewing of purge status, execution details, accounts, and which users requested purges. Purge executions are stored and can be used at a later time to create templates.
Origin Shield	By assigning one or more PoPs as a proxy, Origin Shield helps increase cache hit efficiency. Improves workflows in Limelight and multi-CDN environments. Supports multi-CDN video streaming workflows with a single request to origin. Reduces requests to origin servers.
ARC Light	ARC Light helps speed up content delivery. User request and origin responses are modified to boost speed to content and offload business logic from the application infrastructure.
Origin Storage	Limelight’s Origin Storage, along with the vendor’s private backbone, enable quick storage retrieval and delivery on cache miss. Automated regional replication grabs content and delivers it from the fastest location. Origin Storage serves as primary origin storage or backup origin storage for another CDN.
Control	Control is a self-service portal for configuration of delivery services and live events, content management, administration and securing of the environment, usage analysis, and online support access.
Edge Analytics	Edge Analytics consists of a suite of tools to enable companies to better understand their content delivery. These tools provide details regarding content, traffic, applications, and user behavior.

Applications

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Customers who use Limelight’s services are from all over the globe and
conduct business in various industries. CERN, DIRECTV, Napster,
Marvel, Paul Mitchell, STARZ Entertainment, Lionsgate, Kaspersky Lab, NTT DoCoMo,
Roku, and Universal Music Group are just a few of the companies who
count themselves as Limelight clients.

With a suite of services dedicated to satisfying specific client content
delivery needs, Limelight offers::

Video Content Management so that organizations can manage, publish,
syndicate, analyze, and monetize video content through the cloud..
Performance to boost performance of Web sites and applications.
Content Delivery to distribute rich media files to any format.
Mobile-Device Media Delivery to promote live and on-demand video to
media-enabled devices by creating multiple output formats.
Cloud Storage which offers high performance upload and delivery of all
content.
Cloud Security to prevent distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks
and mitigation techniques along with access control features and WAF
application security.
Edge, which includes capabilities to process, analyze, and aggregate
information where it is generated.

Environment

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The Orchestrate Platform supports on-demand and live streaming for RTMP, HLS,
HDS, MSS, and MPEG-DASH.

Support

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Limelight clients have access to an expert support staff,
available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Self-help options, including user
guides, release notes, diagnostic tools, and more are available through a
customer support portal. A trouble ticket system
provides automated ticket creation and escalation, as well as logs and reports,
to help resolve client issues quickly. According to the vendor, customers have
"free, unrestricted access to live technical support."

To receive Limelight support, issues can be submitted by sending an email to
support@llnw.com.

Pricing

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Product and pricing information is available directly from a Limelight Networks
representative. Interested parties are invited to call (866) 200-5463 or (602)
850-5000 to connect with the sales department. Companies may also request a
free trial of CDN services by completing a form at https://www.limelight.com/free-trial/.

Competitors

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The CDN services sector is a competitive one and it first began 20 years ago
with Akamai, still the main vendor in the market.

Akamai Media Delivery Solutions
Amazon CloudFront Service
CDNetworks‘ CDN 360
Verizon Digital Media Services‘ Edgecast Content Delivery
Network Service
Lumen Technologies Content Delivery Solutions
Fastly CDN Services
StackPath CDN Services

Web Links

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Akamai:
https://www.akamai.com/
Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/
CDN Networks: https://www.cdnetworks.com/
CenturyLink: https://www.centurylink.com/
Fastly: https://www.fastly.com/
Limelight Networks: https://www.limelight.com/
StackPath: https://www.stackpath.com/
Verizon Digital Media Services: https://www.verizondigitalmedia.com/

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