Intel and Varnish Software said they reached new CDN performance milestones approaching 400 Gbps for VOD and live linear use cases.
Varnish Software worked with Intel to test the performance of its Varnish Edge Cloud solution under real-world conditions using 3rd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based servers conformed to the Intel Select Solutions for Visual Cloud Delivery Network reference. The companies said the servers were further configured with hardware acceleration and software optimization, including non-uniform memory access (NUMA) awareness capabilities.
The companies took a virtual demo to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to show off the results:
- Video on demand CDN (1 socket): Up to 192 Gbps network throughput with 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable platform featuring gen 4 Intel DC P5510 SSD
- Video on demand CDN (2 socket): Up to 383 Gbps network throughput with 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable platform featuring gen 4 Intel DC P5510 SSD
- Live linear video CDN: up to 1.74x higher performance on 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Platform supporting Intel Optane PMEM 200 Series, compared with prior generation.
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Varnish said its caching software along with next generation CPUs from Intel are capable of delivering the capacity, input/output and compute performance needed a demand for streamed content grows. The companies also said the results establish a specific method for building faster, more cost-effective CDN solutions capable of handling more users at the same resolution or serving higher-resolution content to a similar number of users.
If that all sounds a bit technical, it’s because it is. But Varnish put the results in simpler terms: they show it’s possible to maximize streaming performance and deliver content to many more users, using off-the-shelf hardware. For service providers looking to build a video CDN, Varnish and Intel have established a way to surpass the performance of the world's largest streaming services, making it easier and cheaper to reach vast audiences.
“Our close collaboration with Intel continues to break new ground in CDN performance. We’re not only approaching line rate speeds and unlocking the capacity to handle huge streaming demand, but making it more cost efficient to do so. It simplifies deployments too, showing how CoSPs can implement the solution and achieve leading performance themselves,” said Varnish Software CEO Lars Larsson in a statement.