It was only a matter time. Amazon (AMZN) has gotten into the CDN business.
The company this week took the wraps off its CDN plan, which reportedly embraces the same no-contract, pay-for-what-you-use model seen in other Amazon Web Services. The initial offer is basic and targeted at SMBs, but it’s an important start for this strong brand in a red hot area of network services.
Driven by growing demand for online video and gaming, CDN revenue totaled more than $990 million last year alone, according to a Jan. 2008 report by Tier 1 Research. Meanwhile, Frost & Sullivan predicts the CDN field will rake in $2.5 billion by 2013.
Of course, Amazon is just one of the many companies in the CDN space, sharing the market both with old-timer content delivery network specialists like Akamai Technologies Inc.(AKAM)
and Limelight Networks Inc.(LLNW) as well as relative newcomers AT&T Inc.(T) and Level 3 Communications Inc.(LVLT).
