CDN Wrap: Deluxe NYC Edition

Written by Ryan Lawler

Thursday, May 22. 2008 at 05:20 PM EDT Post a comment

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Content delivery networks (CDNs) Panther Express Inc. , Akamai Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), Mirror Image Internet Inc. , Highwinds Network Group Inc. , and Limelight Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: LLNW) all announced news during the Streaming Media East show here in New York. But we were busy schmoozing, so we're getting the news out a little late. Sorry 'bout that, but here it is.

Panther names new CEO, surprises no one
No one that reads Contentinople, that is. Earlier this week Panther Express announced that it appointed Steve Liddell, a former Level 3 Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT) executive, as its new CEO.

In his former life at Level 3, Liddell was in charge of the company's metro and inter-city services, including collocation, dark fiber, private line, and wavelength services. Prior to that, he led the company's Asian operations, a role in which he built and later divested an infrastructure-based business operating in four countries.

We broke the news a few weeks ago, and got the first (short) interview with the new CEO, in which Liddell expressed his confidence in growing a business like Panther in a rapidly expanding market. After having a bit more time to review things, he reiterated that confidence.

"My own experience has always been in early-stage companies going up against large incumbents," Liddell says. "I can't think of a better place for anyone to work than in that environment."

Akamai hooks up with Citrix
Akamai improved its enterprise app acceleration story by forming a strategic partnership with app delivery specialist Citrix Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS).

Under the partnership, the companies will work to integrate aspects of Citrix's premises-based NetScaler product with Akamai's cloud-based Web Application Accelerator service. The companies have agreed to develop a set of best practices for integrating the two products, and will also work through reseller partners such as systems integrators to deliver a joint solution.

Neil Cohen, senior manager of product marketing for Akamai's application performance solutions, says, "There's a recognition in the market that application acceleration isn't all the same. For Web application acceleration, some aspects are best served in the data center, and some are better served in the cloud."

According to Cohen, the partnership came about after Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM), a customer of both companies, invested in doing the technology integration itself and suggested thy hook up. The hope is that in the future, other companies won't need to make the same type of investment.

Mirror Image joins the FMS 3 party
Mirror Image announced it has added Adobe Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ADBE)'s Flash Media Server 3 to its network, joining the legion of CDNs jumping on the FMS 3 bandwagon. While the company has offered Windows-based streaming for some time, Mirror Image director of marketing Marty Hayward says the ability to stream via Flash has become increasingly important to the company's customer base.

Select customer trials of Flash-based streaming are underway now, and the company expects to make the offering generally available by late June.

In other news, the company now offers Guardian Content Protection as part of its streaming and object delivery services. According to the company, the new service allows customers to protect content from unauthorized access using a token-based system of authentication.

Highwinds partners on ads, updates analytics
Highwinds added video ad management Black Arrow to its friends list, and announced a partnership that will include a bit of technology integration and a bit of joint marketing on the part of each company.

In a separate release, Highwinds announced an update to its StrikeTracker reporting and analytics platform. Version 1.5 of the platform provides real-time analytics, allowing stat junkies everywhere to see how their content is performing without continuously refreshing Omniture. [Ed. note: Like we here at Contentinople do.]

Limelight signs on en2go
Limelight Networks announced a new customer win by bringing on en2go. The company, which bills itself as a "web 2.0 incubator of digital and programming intelligence," will use Limelight for the beta-phase testing of Flyxo, "a proprietary high-definition streaming application." Details are fuzzy on what it is that en2go does exactly... But they've got Woz on board, so they can't be too bad.