Orange enters operator CDN market in alliance with Akamai

Orange has formed a strategic alliance with CDN provider Akamai Technologies to develop solutions for improved content delivery.

Orange will use technology from Akamai’s Aura Network Solutions to provide CDN services to business customers. The operator’s Orange Business Services division will initially market the solutions in France.

The pair have also formed an innovation steering committee to identify areas of innovation in the field of CDN solutions. Akamai and Orange will jointly explore areas of innovation to bring new solutions to market.

Akamai recently launched Aura Network Solutions as a line of managed and licensed CDN offerings to enable network operators to build their own CDNs. Aura is designed to enable delivery of content owned by the operator itself to multiscreen devices, to enable delivery of third-party content for customers as part of a traditional CDN service, and to deliver services including application and cloud acceleration to enterprise customers.

Informa expects the overall commercial CDN service market to triple over the next five years to reach €3.63 billion in 2017.

“This partnership with Akamai represents an important step forward in our smart networks strategy,” said Gilles Prunier, senior vice-president in charge of the smart networks programme at Orange. “Developing an Orange CDN service, powered by Akamai, will allow us to enrich our existing B-to-B services portfolio and to support our customers’ growth by providing them with new and differentiated web features that improve the end-user experience and ultimately increase customer loyalty.”

The pair have signed a binding MoU and the agreement is subject to conditions around the setting of final terms.
Orange’s deal comes at the same time as Vivendi-backed rival SFR announced that it was entering the operator CDN market in France.