Content Delivery Network (CDN) Basics Exemplified by the Disneys Streaming Services. Edge Computing is So Fun Part 5.

 

Disney’s streaming platform has become a top competitor in an already crowded field. Credit: Scott McIntyre for The New York Times

Disney+ has skyrocketed to over 100 million subscribers in just 16 months since its launch in November 2019 as user growth exponentially over the course of the pandemic. See Figure 1 (Feb 12, 2021.) It also tops Disney’s original projections of getting to 90 million subscribers for Disney+ within four years. This is a very impressive feat. But what people overlooked was the infrastructure behind it to support the huge spike in subscribers. 

How did Disney do it? Content Delivery Network (CDN) is the magic behind Disney’s Streaming services. Disney+ doesn’t own any delivery infrastructure, they use third-party CDNs. To support the huge surge in subscribers, Disney+ relies on CDN providers such as Akamai, Lumen, Limelight, Edgecast, CloudFront and Fastly for its video content distribution. Read More..