The move from legacy distribution methods towards an all-IP streaming business model is top of mind for broadcasters, telcos and service providers. Across the industry, plans are afoot to phase out linear technologies and build infrastructure and platforms around future-proof IP-based technologies. Broadcasters are looking to move from cable and satellite to internet-based delivery. Telcos see an opportunity to bring content delivery in-house on their own network, for an expanded service offering and reduced reliance on using external CDNs for streaming.

Streaming consumption will undoubtedly increase as both digital-only homes and broadband penetration continue to rise. Combine this with a need to handle higher bitrates and more streaming use cases and you have a technical challenge on your hands: 

“From an infrastructure provisioning point of view, if you can deliver the same or better demand with less infrastructure or investment, from fewer boxes on live streams, why wouldn’t you?” - RTÉ on Varnish

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are six months away. However distant this may seem, wheels  across the entire e-commerce industry have begun to turn, shifting their focus from projections and forecasts to tactical decisions on how to improve operations within budget.

With this in mind, here are a few things you can do right now to get ready for this year.

Although it’s not a traditional cybersecurity method, origin shielding lets you protect your origin server(s) from overload, ensuring high availability, performance uptime, and the ability to continue serving web and video traffic even when you experience a CDN outage. As we’ve seen with recent Fastly and Akamai CDN downtime events, the ability to create resilience and operate even in outage situations is a lifesaver.