Cisco and edge cloud application developer Qwilt today announced the deployment of the companies' joint streaming content delivery platform across the North American network of Kinetic by Windstream, to enable superior streaming performance to Windstream's customers throughout the United States.
Windstream said the adoption of Cisco and Qwilt’s Open Caching Solution technology considerably improves the quality and efficiency of its live and on-demand streaming video delivery, while increasing Kinetic’s network capacity for other forms of media.
In a new partnership, Kinetic will deploy Cisco and Qwilt’s Open Caching technology across its 170,000 miles of fiber network across the US. The deployment helps Kinetic address the growing number of live streaming events and other media consumption, as households increasingly turn to streaming services and expect broadcast quality to the home.
As noted by a press release, Cisco’s edge compute and networking infrastructure, combined with Qwilt’s Open Edge Cloud for Content Delivery Solution, makes this possible by preparing Kinetic’s network to support increasing data volumes and improving the streaming experience, providing premium broadband, entertainment, and security services through an enhanced fiber network to consumers and small and midsize businesses, primarily in rural areas in 18 states.
Cisco and Qwilt said deployment of their joint platform improves streaming quality and delivery economics across Kinetic’s network while significantly increasing delivery capacity for live and on-demand content.
Alon Maor, CEO and co-founder of Qwilt, said: “Soaring demand for streamed content brings an urgent need for service providers to scale their networks for the future. Through Cisco and Qwilt’s united vision, we empower service providers like Kinetic by Windstream to do more with their assets while accelerating their digital transformations. We look forward to helping modernize the way Kinetic delivers content and ready their growing network for the future of content experiences.”
Theodore Tzevelekis, VP and head of business development, Mass-scale Infrastructure Group, Cisco, said: “Streaming is the future of content delivery, but it doesn’t have to mark the end of great quality content experiences. By embracing content delivery at the edge through Open Caching technology, service providers are embracing a new model to manage their network capacity. Working alongside Qwilt, we’re equipping Kinetic by Windstream with the tools needed to bring fantastic experiences to its customers across North America and in doing so, democratize capacity across its nationwide infrastructure.”
The partners noted that Open Caching, an open architecture developed and endorsed by the Streaming Video Alliance, offers a platform that federates content delivery infrastructure deployed deep inside service provider networks.
The technology provides open APIs, protection, and security mechanisms for content publishers. The partners said the "open caching approach helps service providers quickly deploy an edge delivery footprint and addresses the needs of global and regional content providers for more capacity, consistency in content delivery, and performance assurance."
Gary Cooke, SVP of engineering for Kinetic, said: “We tell our customers ‘High Speed for Here’ – whether live, on-demand, or other forms of media content. By partnering with Qwilt and Cisco, we’re ensuring our fiber-backed network has the scalability and capacity needed to handle the growth in demand for all forms of streaming content. By integrating innovative edge technologies across our network, we’re bringing high quality content closer to our customers than ever before.”
The new deployment also creates a telco cloud foundation for future use cases such as website delivery and edge computing, noted the companies.
