Case Study: Akamai Helps Canadian Media Company Boost Traffic, Reduce Costs
Akamai was able to offload 80% of CHUM’s streaming traffic, enabling the company to trim down their infrastructure and the associated costs. Akamai also retained a third-party performance measurement service to monitor infrastructure activity during the pilot period. Metrics revealed that the Web site was twice as fast with Akamai than with CHUM’s existing infrastructure. And the integration process was awarded a "low level of effort" rating. CHUM’s IT staff and content producers were satisfied with the new procedures for managing and uploading content.
"Akamai took the time to earn our trust and our business by conducting a pilot with stringent performance metrics and integration requirements. After just 45 days, we were convinced," says Fallon.
Performance and Reliability
CHUM relies on Akamai’s massively scalable network and streaming expertise to confidently reach all their site visitors—no matter what is happening in the news or the entertainment world. The Akamai network is always ready to meet CHUM’s demand, eliminating provisioning cycles that are often time-consuming and based, at best, on guesswork.
"Akamai enabled us to handle traffic surges during special live events, like the 2003 SARS Relief concert with the Rolling Stones and AC/DC and the MuchMusic Video Awards, without spending money on maintenance and infrastructure," says Fallon.
CHUM now has not only high performing and reliable Web sites, but also an operationally efficient and cost effective streaming platform.
"Akamai allowed us to simplify and downsize our infrastructure and achieve a better result," says Fallon. "We are saving about $5,000 a month which adds up fast in the annual operating budget."
Offloading traffic has also helped Pulse24.com, CHUM’s largest news Web site that supports Toronto’s most popular TV news television channel, CP24. Viewers rely on the Web site to deliver breaking news throughout the day and access archived video news clips at their convenience.
By offloading nearly 80% of the site traffic to Akamai’s edge servers, visitors experienced a dramatic performance improvement. "Visitors to the Web site are consistently able to view high, quality streaming video—even during usage spikes," says Fallon. "By transferring our infrastructure demands to Akamai, we improved the site’s performance, which resulted in an increase in visitor traffic," adds Fallon."
Bringing TV and Radio Together
"Since we’ve started working with Akamai, the TV and radio divisions have been asked to work more closely together, especially regarding the operations infrastructure," explains Fallon. "Akamai has proven to be a reliable content delivery and streaming provider, and I can say with certainty that Akamai has contributed to the ease of integration of TV and radio."
CHUM started the Akamai pilot project with their largest Internet property, www.muchmusic.com, an advertising- and sponsorship-driven Web site. Recognizing the benefits of greater operational efficiencies, reduced costs, and less hassle, CHUM is systematically adding more sites to the Akamai EdgePlatform.
"Given the breadth of Akamai’s offerings and the stability of our relationship, CHUM will continue to transfer more Internet properties to Akamai," says Fallon.