[Pickled Hamster]

I note that the following post was closed off without allowing any further discussion on the issue:

http://forum.vodafon...oesnt-vodafone/

The post asks why Vodafone does not cache Youtube clips locally to save money on international bandwidth and improve performance.

I'd just like to say that Google often runs caching servers within an ISP's premises to speed up delivery of content to end users.

This provides better service for Google customers and does indeed save ISP's money on international bandwidth.

Does Vodafone house any of Googles servers on their premises for such purposes?

This post has been edited by Pickled Hamster: 08 February 2010 - 07:40 PM

[Matt]

I'm not sure on all the answers to your question above, however, I can probably answer the reason why we don't cache YouTube video....there is 20 hours of footage uploaded to YouTube every minute....the sheer size of the system needed to cache the number of videos viewed would be incredibly expensive. Case in point, Technology consultants RampRate Inc. projects YouTube's operating losses this year at $174.2 million (that's US dollars), Mountain View-based Google has acknowledged YouTube isn't profitable, but has refused to provide any specifics, leaving it to outsiders to figure out.

So, if YouTube can't make any money providing the service, I fail to see how Vodafone, or for that matter any other ISP would benefit from such a service. YouTube may in time charge users for watching TV/movies on the service, but they have a fairly large shortfall to make up in the meantime.

[MikeyPI]

Pickled Hamster, on 08 February 2010 - 08:31 PM, said:

I note that the following post was closed off without allowing any further discussion on the issue:

http://forum.vodafon...oesnt-vodafone/

The post asks why Vodafone does not cache Youtube clips locally to save money on international bandwidth and improve performance.

I'd just like to say that Google often runs caching servers within an ISP's premises to speed up delivery of content to end users.

This provides better service for Google customers and does indeed save ISP's money on international bandwidth.

Does Vodafone house any of Googles servers on their premises for such purposes?

Can you point to an ISP that does, or is this a wishlist type thing?

[Pickled Hamster]

MikeyPI, on 09 February 2010 - 10:00 PM, said:

Pickled Hamster, on 08 February 2010 - 08:31 PM, said:

I note that the following post was closed off without allowing any further discussion on the issue:

http://forum.vodafon...oesnt-vodafone/

The post asks why Vodafone does not cache Youtube clips locally to save money on international bandwidth and improve performance.

I'd just like to say that Google often runs caching servers within an ISP's premises to speed up delivery of content to end users.

This provides better service for Google customers and does indeed save ISP's money on international bandwidth.

Does Vodafone house any of Googles servers on their premises for such purposes?

Can you point to an ISP that does, or is this a wishlist type thing?

Sure, I have a link to the Google Public Policy Blog, but it seems I can't post a link to it here.

From the page (click the image to see the full URL)

 Google.gif (1.97K)
Number of downloads: 0
"Edge caching is a common practice used by ISPs and application and content providers in order to improve the end user experience. Companies like Akamai, Limelight, and Amazon's Cloudfront provide local caching services, and broadband providers typically utilize caching as part of what are known as content distribution networks (CDNs). Google and many other Internet companies also deploy servers of their own around the world.

By bringing YouTube videos and other content physically closer to end users, site operators can improve page load times for videos and Web pages. In addition, these solutions help broadband providers by minimizing the need to send traffic outside of their networks and reducing congestion on the Internet's backbones. In fact, caching represents one type of innovative network practice encouraged by the open Internet.

Google has offered to "colocate" caching servers within broadband providers' own facilities; this reduces the provider's bandwidth costs since the same video wouldn't have to be transmitted multiple times. We've always said that broadband providers can engage in activities like colocation and caching, so long as they do so on a non-discriminatory basis.

All of Google's colocation agreements with ISPs -- which we've done through projects called OpenEdge and Google Global Cache -- are non-exclusive, meaning any other entity could employ similar arrangements. Also, none of them require (or encourage) that Google traffic be treated with higher priority than other traffic. In contrast, if broadband providers were to leverage their unilateral control over consumers' connections and offer colocation or caching services in an anti-competitive fashion, that would threaten the open Internet and the innovation it enables."

Throw some of that text into a search engine and you should be able to find it.

It's common practice for Google and other content providers.

I can't actually provide an example of an ISP here that is doing this, because thats the crux of my question. :-)

This post has been edited by Pickled Hamster: 10 February 2010 - 07:25 PM