It collaborated with Intel and Supermicro to achieve a 1,200 Gbps throughput on a single Edge server with reduced power consumption.
A speedy and seamless web experience is becoming increasingly important in an ever-growing internet-savvy world, highlighting the need for reliable content delivery network (CDN) service providers that can deliver sustainable solutions at scale.
Varnish Software, offering a wide array of caching, streaming and CDN solutions, helps content providers deliver quality and lightning-fast web and streaming experiences at a massive scale. It particularly places a strong emphasis on sustainability to ensure delivery of high-quality content will be unrestricted by the limitations of the current technology in the future.
For instance, many broadcasters, streamers, and communications service providers are still relying on outdated infrastructure they once considered “cutting edge” solutions in the past like a 200 Gbps CDN cache node. They have been adding more servers, accelerators, or infrastructure just to handle the increased load, translating to a never-ending rise in costs, power, and time-intensive coding efforts.
Varnish Software was able to come up with a solution that could slash power consumption by about two-thirds, through its recent collaboration with US tech giants Intel and Supermicro. The partners were able to achieve over 1,200 Gbps throughput on a single Edge server with 1,120 watts of energy used or 1.17 Gbps per watt, a record-breaking solution that sets the new industry benchmark for speed, power, and efficiency.
Other solutions it offers were showcased at the annual IBC 2023 global conference, including its Varnish Enterprise 6, a web cache and HTTP accelerator loaded with a broad range of features for optimal user experience, ensuring content is deployed from the best location.
Varnish Enterprise 6 comes together with the upgraded Varnish Controller 5.1 – a user interface and control plane for managing large-scale operations – and the Traffic Router to further enhance user experience. Traffic Router is an HTTP and DNS-based request router enabling users and upstream CDNs to fetch content from the optimal Varnish cache, which helps to simplify web service operations and maintain availability, among other things.
Also exhibited during the latest IBC conference is Varnish Software’s latest and most advanced offering in managing cached objects and storing their associated metadata dubbed Massive Storage Engine (MSE) 4. With specifications geared for high-performing delivery of large-scale data sets, MSE 4 is ideal for businesses in the media and video streaming industries, as well as image banks, retailers and financial institutions.
Its features include cash persistence, a big storage capacity of more than 100 terabytes, and the ability to process 100Gb of data per second on a single server. It also has an improved least recently used algorithm and a fragmentation-proof allocation system wherein each object is allocated storage in one place for fast retrieval.
In line with its goal towards sustainability, Varnish Software prides itself on the ability to offer solutions that are highly flexible and customizable for entities seeking greater control over their content delivery. The firm sees a flexible and scalable CDN as a response to the ongoing shift from traditional broadcasting to streaming and the need to leverage existing infrastructure. This is also particularly important for live streaming of events, like sports, as it addresses the challenges of low latency streaming and unpredictable traffic surges.
Its Varnish Enterprise 6 offers that kind of flexibility and RTÉ, state-run national television in Ireland, was able to utilise the solution to power flexible live and on-demand video streaming whilst ensuring its HD and potential UHD delivery capabilities are future-proofed.
Tele2, a Swedish telecommunications operator, has also leveraged the solution in migrating its entire video distribution to streaming TV. The move allowed Tele 2 to offer a full suite of triple-play services that bundle TV, phone, and broadband services. The migration involved replacing over 500,000 set-top boxes and rolling out a private CDN with Varnish Enterprise.
These are just some of the string of solutions that content providers can take advantage of to up their game and future-proof their businesses. Advanced CDN and web acceleration technologies are undoubtedly playing an increasingly crucial role in aiding companies to keep up with the growing and fast-evolving demand for high-quality video content and other digital experiences.
Innovative solutions offered by Varnish Software and the rest of the industry are expected to become more critical in ensuring the demand for more streaming platforms and better video streaming quality are met. The rising adoption of 5G technology and the emergence of immersive content like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are also driving the growth of the sector.
The industry has come a long way in innovating solutions but there is still plenty to be done. For Varnish Software, a more decentralized content delivery, like bespoke edge computing and multi-CDN infrastructure, may just be the next big thing in content delivery.