Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) such as Akamai and Mirror Image place web server clusters in numerous geographical locations to improve the responsiveness and locality of the content it hosts for end-users. However, their services are priced out of reach for all but the largest enterprise customers. An alternative approach to content delivery could be achieved by leveraging existing infrastructure provided by ’storage cloud’ providers, at a fraction of the cost. MetaCDN is a system that leverages several existing ’storage clouds’, creating an integrated overlay network that provides a low cost, high performance content delivery network for content creators. MetaCDN intelligently places content onto one or many storage providers based on the quality of service, coverage and budget preferences of participants.

This project was created as part of the successful ARC Discovery Grant, “Coordinated and Cooperative Load Sharing between Content Delivery Networks” (Broberg/Tari, DP0881742, 2008-2010), by Chief Investigators (CIs) Dr. James Broberg and Prof. Zahir Tari.

CIs Broberg and Tari also work with collaborators at the University of Melbourne and RMIT University.