Is your CDN service provider giving you the red-carpet treatment?

Content delivery is a complex challenge. These networks aren’t simple, especially when you tie in complementary technologies like WAN Optimization. Granted, it’s a cliché to point out that you want good customer service (everyone wants low prices and good service for everything), but in the case of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), the level of customer service merits some vetting. For example, Jolokia Networks, a provider of hosting, streaming and IT services, was seeking to improve delivery solutions for live and on-demand rich media, as well as dynamic content, for its customers.

When Mark Pace, Jolokia’s CTO, began weighing his CDN options, customer service was one of the key selection criteria in choosing Internap’s CDN. Pace said in a recent interview with Datamation, “This is a hugely complex technology, and you need a partner who can help you when something goes wrong,” Pace said. He added that over the years, with Jolokia and at other companies, he’d tried other CDN services, and unless you’re a major customer, support could be sketchy. “I’ve been through Akamai, Limelight and Speedera,” he said. “I didn’t feel the love from them. We’re not a huge company, so we don’t get the red-carpet treatment.” In contrast, Pace lauds Internap for its responsive, individualized support. For a company like Jolokia, which resells the content delivery service, support is even more important, since Jolokia may be blamed for problems they have no control over. This is true as well when the problem is on the customer’s end. “You can’t just blame the customer for doing something wrong,” he said – which in fact happens all the time. “If it’s your fault, you need to own up to it. If it’s your customer’s fault, you provide evidence, and then you must work with them to help them fix it.” Pace recalled a customer having problems with video delivery due to network saturation issues. Internap helped with the post-mortem, and Jolokia was able to point to logs showing saturated routers. Then, they helped the customer tweak their encoder and set up QoS rules, transforming their frustrated customer into a happy, loyal one.

How has your CDN service provider been treating you lately?

Read more about how Jolokia selected Internap as their CDN provider.