Start-up Turbobytes has launched a multi-platform meta-CDN service that allows medium-sized businesses to sign one contract to use four different CDN networks, with real-time switching to improve cost and performance.
CTO Sajal Kayan explained that existing sites need the addition of just two lines of non-blocking JavaScript code. An engine will analyse data in real-time and makes intelligent decisions whether or not to switch to another better performing CDN.
“We are targeting the large sites. The huge ones can take care of themselves and write their own systems,” he said.
Those two lines of code will report the speed and performance from the end-user experience for a given region and CDN. A dashboard will report in real time how different CDNs perform and if a certain CDN’s performance drops at different periods of time.
The actual switching is done through updating DNS records and can be done at a regional, country or, for the United States, state-level.
CDNs deployed are Level3, EdgeCast, Internap and NetDNA with more to be added over the next few months.
Kayan explained that while multi-CDN optimization is not new, the competition requires the customer to sign individual contracts with each CDN and only provides the switching logic. This means the cost of entry is much higher compared to the zero monthly-fee, no commitment, cancel any time approach he offers.
Turbobytes uses Dyn for DNS and optimisation is by re-configuring the DNS settings. If by chance all the systems go down, it has absolutely no impact on customers’ content delivery.
Major cost savings can be had by mixing different CDNs. Many cheaper CDNs give decent US and European performance, but lag in certain niche countries compared to more expensive CDNs.
Turbobytes will offers both a decent price and good performance everywhere by mixing cheaper CDNs in developed markets and more expensive CDNs in any niche market that is deemed important by the user.
Kayal said he has been working on the nuts and bolts of the project for the past six months and is certain it will change the world. For a site hosted on Amazon EC2 not using a CDN, signing a contract with Turbobytes will reduce costs immediately. For instance, AWS in Singapore will charge $0.19 per GB for transfers out, but Turbobytes will charge $0.18 for Asia and $0.10 for US/EU data.