CDN Roundup 9/8: Level 3 in 3D, Akamai, Limelight

All three of the top public, US-based CDNs had announcements this morning, but that was where the similarity ended.

Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) had the most technologically exciting news of the three.  They will be demonstrating online 3D technology that will allow the user to customize their smooth streaming, 3D, HD experience using multiple camera angles encoded into the same feed and distributed via the Level 3 CDN.  The demo will be at the Microsoft stand during IBC over the weekend, and will leverage gear from NVIDIA and of course Microsoft’s Silverlight. Sounds really cool – glamour doesn’t pay the bills, but it makes it more fun regardless.

Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM, news, filings) had the most fiscally exciting news, as it was the only one of the three to actually announce a contract win.  The CDN sector’s 800lb gorilla won a deal with Conenza, which has leveraged Akamai’s Web Application Accelerator service.  Conenza provides coporate social networking applications and solutions to large enterprises, and was able to improve the performance by some 270% – quite a feat however you choose to measure it.  Hard to argue with Akamai these days with the growth numbers they have been putting up.

For its part, Limelight Networks (NASDAQ:LLNW, news, filings) advanced its product portfolio, expanding the capabilities of its website acceleration services with the introduction of Commerce Accelerator and Portal Accelerator.  The former is aimed at speeding delivery of content related to transactions, shopping carts, and other interactive content for commercial sites.  The latter is aimed at speeding up web and extranet applications.  Interestingly, both include the ability to leverage Limelight’s dedicated transport routes and bypass the internet itself when needed for performance.  They say this bypasses ‘middle mile’ bottlenecks, but they must have a different definition of ‘middle mile’ than I’m used to.  Limelight also announced enhancements for its subsidiary EyeWonder, adding rich media and video as well as HTML5 support for mobile applications.  They’ve been busy!

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