Cdn News & Articles

Microsoft's ASP.NET team has launched a free AJAX content delivery network (CDN) that will provide improved performance for your AJAX-enabled web applications.

The CDN is a network of edge cache servers around the world that stores Microsoft's AJAX libraries so your application can download necessary files faster, thus increasing web application performance.

This service is similar to Amazon's CloudFront CDN. The Amazon CDN is primarily targeted at small to medium sized businesses and developers who can't afford, and don't necessarily need, the more well-known, expensive CDNs like Akamai and Limelight. It supports the caching of images, css files, video and other static content.

Unlike Amazon's CloudFront CDN, the AJAX CDN is free for both commercial and non-commercial use and provides caching support for only AJAX libraries such as jQuery and ASP.NET AJAX.

Using the CDN is as simple as adding a couple of script elements to a page in your application that wants to access the AJAX libraries on the CDN. Also available are debug versions of the script. A single script is required to access the JQuery library.

You can get a list of the current scripts available on the CDN on the Microsoft AJAX website. Make sure you read the terms of use statement.

As libraries are updated, they will be added to the CDN.

If you are using ASP.NET 4, you can use the ScriptManager control to access the CDN. It has a new property called EnableCdn. If set to true, it will automatically request Javascript files from the CDN.

Learn more about how to use the ScriptManager control and  ASP.NET AJAX Preview 5 in Scott Gu's post introducing the new AJAX CDN.

Texas-based SoftLayer (news, site), a provider of on-demand virtual data center services, has just announced that it now offers Parallel’s (news, site) Plesk Panel as an option with its CloudLayer platform -- cloud package for storage, computing and content delivery.

With this new offering, SoftLayer says it has only got its customers interests at heart by offering them more control over their IT environments, but what they're also doing is cutting an even bigger slice of that great big pie in the cloud.

SoftLayer Technologies (news, site), provider of on-demand virtual data center services, has scored again. Earlier this year the company announced their partner status in the Microsoft Hosting BizSpark program in addition to the release of a cloud package for the enterprise. This month they were recognized by the Gartner Magic Quadrant, which listed them as a “Niche Player” for Web Hosting and Cloud Infrastructure Services (On-Demand).

Each company in the Magic Quadrant was reportedly evaluated on its completeness of vision and ability to execute within: self-managed hosting, mainstream-managed hosting, highly complex managed hosting, global solutions portfolio, and enterprise applications hosting.

CloudLayer, SoftLayer’s set of cloud services and, in this case, recognition winner, includes a Content Delivery Network (CDN), Storage and Computing. All of these are available as standalone services or fully integrated with all other SoftLayer offerings.

“In my opinion, being evaluated in this report is proof that our unique approach is redefining hosting,” said Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer. “Of course, our greatest pride and core goal is to provide solutions and scalability that make an impact on our customers’ business. But to me, being in the Magic Quadrant shows that we’re making a difference throughout the industry.”

SoftLayer (news, site) offers a range of server-based systems from plain storage to dedicated multi-processor servers. Now, it adds a CloudLayer to offer a wide-ranging cloud package to the enterprise.

SoftLayer announced additional features for CDNLayer, the company’s unique content delivery network. CDNLayer is a worldwide system of server nodes scaled and optimized for delivery of large files.

For example, if you have a dozen zipped audiobooks you sell via your website and the files average one gigabyte in size, Softlayer’s CDNLayer option may meet your needs.

The news that Amazon is now offering a low-cost CDN has likely excited many people. Aptly named CloudFront, this service is stirring up a lot of attention. In our overview of the new service, we outlined the basic steps to use CloudFront.

In this post, we thought we would give you a little more detail on those steps to help you get started sooner.

Well known as being the pioneer for cloud computing services, Amazon has released the beta version of its latest initiative — a content delivery network. Amazon’s CloudFront CDN is cheap enough that SMB web publishers are now able to serve their more popular content to their customers quickly and easily.

Wowza Media Systems, a software company that focuses solely on media servers, announced the availability of Wowza Media Server Pro Subscription Edition.

This new product features “friction-free” monthly subscription licensing for its industrial-strength media server. The goal is to make the process of streaming or hosting flash media services a “painless” and cost-effective option.

Brightcove, a video distribution platform, has undergone major changes that will help make this platform an impressive solution for customers looking to produce and distribute video content on the Web.

From tiered pricing to API enhancements, this might be the most impressive release from Brightcove yet.

BitGravity, a provider of Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, has announced the release of its new application programming interface (API) called Advanced Progressive.

The new API will allow developers to integrate advertising, adjust bit-rates automatically, display virtual clips and add other functionality, which results in a scalable and interactive high-definition video solution.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), a provider of Internet data storage and delivery services, is planning to release an unnamed content delivery service that will likely undercut the existing Content Delivery Network (CDN) competition to provide customers with faster and cheaper digital content delivery options.

Was Mashable having website troubles? They have partnered with EdgeCast Networks, a content delivery network, to speed up the delivery of their social media news and information so you can get your fill of what’s happening in the blogosphere that much quicker. Can you tell the difference?

We recently covered the announcement of Velocix Accelerator, the world’s first free content delivery network aimed towards new digital media businesses. Just a few weeks later, another low-cost CDN aimed at the start up market has surfaced. This time, the company entering the CDN ring is Softlayer, a datacenter out of Dallas, Texas.

Not so new to the SaaS market, but new to us at CMSWire, Jamcracker, a provider of SaaS delivery services is offering an integration kit that is designed to help you get your SaaS offering to market quickly.

Coming off the heels of recently announced low cost and free hosted web application services such as Amazon’s S3 and Google Apps, UK based digital asset delivery network Velocix have announced that they are releasing the world’s first free content delivery network called Velocix Accelerator, currently in private Beta.