Microsoft announced it would start to provide a public preview of their own Content Delivery Network (CDN) to enable customers to use and deliver content from it. With Azure CDN customers can allow their businesses to provide content on any of Microsoft’s extensive 54 global point-of-presence (POP) CDN in 33 countries.
The Azure CDN is a distributed network of servers, which can deliver web content fast and is highly available to its users. Furthermore, through connectivity with Microsoft’s Global Network, Azure customers can access the CDN and benefit from the multi-tier caching capabilities for direct, private access to their content in Azure from each CDN edge POP.
Source: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-microsoft-s-own-cdn-network/
Over the years Microsoft has used their CDN themselves during their transition to the cloud with Office 365, Skype, Bing, OneDrive, Windows, and Xbox. With this experience, Microsoft has decided to release their CDN as a service in Azure for their customers. Furthermore, Microsoft will offer Azure CDN alongside existing CDN providers Verizon and Akamai. Hence, Microsoft will start competing with their CDN partners’ offerings. In an onmicrosoft article about the announcement of Azure CDN, Kareem Anderson states:
Relatively similar to the introduction of the first Surface computer, Microsoft is looking to navigate the potential rocky waters of partnership by offering its CDN option alongside other provider options such as Verizon and Akamai who leverage support for Azure.
Other significant CDN providers besides Verizon and Akamai include Amazon, Cloudflare, and Rackspace. By entering the CDN market, Microsoft will also compete with them. With competitive pricing for data transfers and storage, and ability to leverage other services on the Azure platform, the Azure CDN offering can be a compelling option for customers.
Besides the public preview of the Azure CDN, Microsoft is also launching a public preview of a use-your-own SSL certificate capability to enable customers to customize and self-maintain their certificates for their custom CDN solutions. Moreover, customers can start using Azure CDN today, and pricing details are available on the pricing page.