Fastly Case Studies Fastly’s Edge Cloud Platform: A Game Changer for Nine’s Media Delivery

	Fastly’s Edge Cloud Platform: A Game Changer for Nine’s Media Delivery Fastly

Fastly’s Edge Cloud Platform: A Game Changer for Nine’s Media Delivery

Fastly

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Middleware & Microservices
Applicable Industries	Cement Construction & Infrastructure
Applicable Functions	Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Construction Management Infrastructure Inspection
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services Testing & Certification
Challenge	Nine, Australia’s largest locally owned media company, faced significant challenges in the fast-paced media industry. With a diverse set of technological needs and engineering challenges, Nine needed to ensure time-sensitive media delivery to over 12 million readers across its platforms. The speed of media delivery directly impacts audience reach, conversion, and ad revenue. Therefore, Nine needed to ensure up-to-date content delivery, requiring a powerful, programmable, secure Content Delivery Network (CDN) and innovative IT partnerships. The company also faced a 50% spike in users and subscribers since the start of 2020, necessitating the ability to scale at pace. Furthermore, Nine recognized the need for a modern approach to CDN, with access to source code management for agile publishing and rapid change cycles. Read More
About Customer	Nine is Australia’s largest locally owned media company with a diverse portfolio spanning TV, radio, streaming, digital, and traditional print mastheads. The company's offerings range from The Australian Financial Review to the streaming service Stan, catering to a wide audience across news, sport, lifestyle, and entertainment sectors. In the rapidly evolving media space, Nine has a diverse set of technological needs and engineering challenges. The company is committed to delivering time-sensitive media to over 12 million readers across its platforms. Nine is also an early adopter of innovative technologies, recognizing the need for a modern approach to content delivery networks and infrastructure management. Read More
Solution	Nine partnered with Fastly, leveraging its edge cloud platform to support publishing speed and scale to meet the increased user demand. Fastly’s features like instant configuration, serving stale, and shielding were instrumental in this process. Nine also switched to Fastly’s Terraform integration, which enabled infrastructure as code (IaC), allowing Nine to manage and provision infrastructure through code instead of manual processes. This resulted in sub-second configuration changes, significantly enhancing publishing speed. Fastly’s edge cloud platform also helped get a page render in front of the user quickly, buying valuable milliseconds to deliver real-time content. If Nine’s origin servers were down or slow, Fastly served content to users from the cache, ensuring a seamless user experience and improved uptime. Fastly’s shielding model also enabled Nine to funnel traffic spikes closer to their origin, saving infrastructure costs and delivering reliable uptime. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Middleware & Microservices

Applicable Industries

Cement

Construction & Infrastructure

Applicable Functions

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Construction Management

Infrastructure Inspection

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

Testing & Certification

Challenge

Nine, Australia’s largest locally owned media company, faced significant challenges in the fast-paced media industry. With a diverse set of technological needs and engineering challenges, Nine needed to ensure time-sensitive media delivery to over 12 million readers across its platforms. The speed of media delivery directly impacts audience reach, conversion, and ad revenue. Therefore, Nine needed to ensure up-to-date content delivery, requiring a powerful, programmable, secure Content Delivery Network (CDN) and innovative IT partnerships. The company also faced a 50% spike in users and subscribers since the start of 2020, necessitating the ability to scale at pace. Furthermore, Nine recognized the need for a modern approach to CDN, with access to source code management for agile publishing and rapid change cycles.

About Customer

Nine is Australia’s largest locally owned media company with a diverse portfolio spanning TV, radio, streaming, digital, and traditional print mastheads. The company's offerings range from The Australian Financial Review to the streaming service Stan, catering to a wide audience across news, sport, lifestyle, and entertainment sectors. In the rapidly evolving media space, Nine has a diverse set of technological needs and engineering challenges. The company is committed to delivering time-sensitive media to over 12 million readers across its platforms. Nine is also an early adopter of innovative technologies, recognizing the need for a modern approach to content delivery networks and infrastructure management.

Solution

Nine partnered with Fastly, leveraging its edge cloud platform to support publishing speed and scale to meet the increased user demand. Fastly’s features like instant configuration, serving stale, and shielding were instrumental in this process. Nine also switched to Fastly’s Terraform integration, which enabled infrastructure as code (IaC), allowing Nine to manage and provision infrastructure through code instead of manual processes. This resulted in sub-second configuration changes, significantly enhancing publishing speed. Fastly’s edge cloud platform also helped get a page render in front of the user quickly, buying valuable milliseconds to deliver real-time content. If Nine’s origin servers were down or slow, Fastly served content to users from the cache, ensuring a seamless user experience and improved uptime. Fastly’s shielding model also enabled Nine to funnel traffic spikes closer to their origin, saving infrastructure costs and delivering reliable uptime.

Impact #1	The partnership with Fastly brought about significant operational improvements for Nine. The company was able to maintain its competitive edge in the fast-paced media industry by ensuring rapid and reliable content delivery. Fastly’s edge cloud platform enabled Nine to manage configuration through normal source code management, allowing for a rapid change cycle that’s trustworthy and flexible. This agility in publishing was a key differentiator in an industry running on legacy CDNs. The ability to serve stale content from the cache during server downtime or slow running ensured a seamless user experience and improved uptime. Fastly’s shielding model also provided reliable uptime and faster experiences, crucial in a geographically dispersed country like Australia. Furthermore, Nine engineers appreciated the flexibility of Fastly and using Varnish Configuration Language (VCL) to script use cases and circumstances.

Impact #1

The partnership with Fastly brought about significant operational improvements for Nine. The company was able to maintain its competitive edge in the fast-paced media industry by ensuring rapid and reliable content delivery. Fastly’s edge cloud platform enabled Nine to manage configuration through normal source code management, allowing for a rapid change cycle that’s trustworthy and flexible. This agility in publishing was a key differentiator in an industry running on legacy CDNs. The ability to serve stale content from the cache during server downtime or slow running ensured a seamless user experience and improved uptime. Fastly’s shielding model also provided reliable uptime and faster experiences, crucial in a geographically dispersed country like Australia. Furthermore, Nine engineers appreciated the flexibility of Fastly and using Varnish Configuration Language (VCL) to script use cases and circumstances.

Benefit #1	50% spike in users and subscribers since the start of 2020 was effectively managed.
Benefit #2	Sub-second configuration changes were achieved, significantly enhancing publishing speed.
Benefit #3	Cache hit ratios (CHRs) were maintained at 85% with a short Time to Live (TTL).

Benefit #1

50% spike in users and subscribers since the start of 2020 was effectively managed.

Benefit #2

Sub-second configuration changes were achieved, significantly enhancing publishing speed.

Benefit #3

Cache hit ratios (CHRs) were maintained at 85% with a short Time to Live (TTL).

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Overview

Fastly’s Edge Cloud Platform: A Game Changer for Nine’s Media Delivery

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit