Cisco Investments has lead a new round of funding for CDN provider Qwilt, which will use the money to accelerate its service provider edge cloud ambitions.
Qwilt and Cisco have been working collaboratively on a CDN solution that features an edge architecture based on Open Caching from the Streaming Video Alliance and a partnership-based business model that brings service providers in on the content delivery value chain.
Open caching, an open architecture developed by the Streaming Video Alliance, turns service provider edge infrastructure into a content delivery network with open APIs for content publishers.
In 2019, Qwilt introduced Content Delivery Sharing, which it said allows local service providers to be paid to use their own assets to deliver a service that is coordinated by a central entity, and that users get the benefit of on-demand, local service. OTT content providers’ content is delivered by local ISP edge computing assets instead of a CDN.
“This investment signals an inflection point for Qwilt and Cisco to expand upon our shared vision to help service providers use edge computing to deliver digital content experiences from their own networks,” said Qwilt CEO and Co-Founder Alon Maor in a statement. “We are ready to accelerate our efforts by hiring new talent, elevating our marketing efforts and putting R&D into action for mass-scale growth.”
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“Streaming is a primary focus for most service providers today to drive revenue. Cisco’s investment in Qwilt demonstrates our commitment to helping customers monetize their edge cloud infrastructure with a solution that improves the quality of service and reliability,” said Jonathan Davidson, executive vice president and general manager of the Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group at Cisco. “We are seeing great momentum with customers around the world who believe in the powerful combination of Qwilt and Cisco to take them to the next level with an innovative content delivery platform for streaming and on-demand services, new applications and more.”
Over the past year, Cisco and Qwilt have signed on new CDN partners including Telecom Argentina, BT and TIM.