Fastly's CDN Solution: A Game Changer for api.video's Global Expansion

api.video, a European-based company that provides video encoding, delivery, and hosting services, faced significant challenges in scaling its video delivery via its Content Delivery Network (CDN). The company was using a niche CDN provider, CDNetworks, for its two data centers in Canada and Europe. However, the provider was unable to meet the growing demands of api.video. The company faced issues with poor cache performance under full load, especially during live streaming events. This issue was so severe that it restricted product access and hindered the company's scaling efforts. Additionally, the CDN provider only made logs accessible once per day, which made quick mitigation of any abuse impossible. The company also faced issues with opaque routing within its old CDN, which was suboptimal and offered no control. Furthermore, api.video wanted to leverage future features that the previous CDN provider would not allow due to lacking features or mandated policies. These features included supporting custom domains, domain referrer restrictions, the ability to control request log data, and support for the Cloud Data Management Capabilities (CDMC) framework and built-in optimizations for video use cases.

api.video is a European-based company that helps businesses easily encode, deliver, and host videos. The company provides an end-to-end service that covers encoding, delivery, and storage, making it easy for businesses to add videos to a website, app, CMS, or software. api.video serves a wide range of customers, including eLearning providers, C-marketplaces, and social networks. The company is ambitious and prefers to run its own infrastructure for greater flexibility and cost management. After securing Series A funding in summer 2022, api.video aimed to extend its reach in key markets in Europe, the US, and beyond.