BT Taps Cisco, Qwilt and Digital Alpha to Deploy Open Caching Solution

Cisco, Qwilt and Digital Alpha (DA) are disrupting the commercial Content Delivery Network (CDN) market with a new as-a-service offering based on Open Caching, with BT as the flagship customer.

Streaming content is increasingly delivered in 4K and soon 8K, supporting augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications across multiple devices, over wireline and wireless connections. This drives network capacity demands, with consumer internet video traffic expected to comprise 82% of all (consumer) internet traffic by 2022, (up from 73% in 2017.)

Resulting performance requirements are accelerating the shift away from traditional content delivery models, opening up the opportunity for service providers to use their edge assets to deploy their own distributed CDN capabilities and become more active participants in the streaming media delivery value chain.

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, into a global CDN with open APIs for content publishers.

It is designed to help service providers easily deploy an edge CDN footprint, offering them more control over content flows. It also caters to the needs of global and regional content providers for more capacity, consistency in content delivery and performance assurance.

Featuring Digital Alpha as the investing partner providing a unique funding solution, this partnership combines Qwilt’s innovative content delivery platform based on Open Caching, with Cisco’s edge compute and networking infrastructure to deliver the solution as-a-service to service providers of all sizes around the world.

BT, the UK’s leading telecommunications and network provider, in partnership with Qwilt, Cisco and DA has deployed this solution to add multiple terabits per second of capacity and provide cost-effective, high-quality streaming video to meet its growing demand in 2020 and beyond. Its decision to make the transition to Open Caching is based on the following requirements:

Deliver the highest-quality streaming experience across its entire network
Support an open architecture endorsed by the Streaming Video Alliance
Drive new revenue by becoming an active part of the content delivery value chain
Reduce content delivery costs by deploying CDN capabilities inside its network

Eliminate deployment costs using the innovative capex-free model
Industry and streaming ecosystem support for Open Caching is growing, with over 50 global service providers, technology vendors and content publishers actively involved in moving the content delivery industry in this direction.

“At BT we connect for good and streaming video has never been more important than in today’s challenging times,” said Neil McRae, Chief Architect, Managing Director for Architecture and Technology Strategy at BT. “Our mission at BT is to ensure our customers have the best experience every time and with record levels of streaming we needed to disrupt the status quo. Qwilt’s pioneering open caching platform together with Cisco’s cloud infrastructure gives BT the first 5G MEC capability in the UK to deliver premium quality video and on demand services.”

“Streaming video may be the killer app for the internet, but it doesn’t have to KILL the internet,” said Jonathan Davidson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mass Scale Infrastructure Group, Cisco. “With streaming video expected to represent north of 80% of traffic flowing through service provider networks in the coming years, content delivery is the first of potentially many services they can deploy from within to monetize their edge footprint in the 5G era. Marking this milestone together with Qwilt and Digital Alpha to enable edge cloud services for service providers, we can change the economics of the internet for the future, partnering with customers like BT to help them manage video traffic more effectively.”

“The way we consume video has changed, and content delivery must change with it,” said Alon Maor, CEO and Co-founder of Qwilt. “Our shared vision is to help service providers enable Open Caching in their networks and leverage edge computing as a fundamental component of their architecture. Together, we are helping many customers such as BT to accelerate their digital transformation in the UK and establish a content delivery platform that will serve as a foundation for today’s applications and new experiences coming in the future.”

“Digital Alpha is a trusted business partner, actively working with leading technology companies to support their market needs and growth opportunities with unique funding solutions,” said Rick Shroti, Co-Founder, Managing Partner, Digital Alpha. “Our domain background and expertise lets us structure this innovative outcome-based model to support global service providers deploying their own CDNs with zero capex and limited risk. Working with our partners in conjunction with the leading content providers, we are committed to scaling this platform to service providers globally in the months ahead.”