Facebook boosts edge network to speed content delivery

A senior exec from social networking giant Facebook has confirmed that the company is building out its own edge network to speed up the delivery of content such as photos, according to tech news site GigaOM.

Speaking at the GigaOM Structure 2012 event in San Francisco, Facebook VP Frank Frankovsky is quoted as saying that his company is placing servers inside points of presence owned by ISPs in order to speed up the delivery of content to users around the world.

Mr Frankovsky added that the traffic generated by photo uploads alone is sufficient to justify the move – but does not dismiss a suggestion put to him that it could also be part of preparations for the delivery of new services.

In related news, online video service Netflix recently announced its own Content Delivery Network (CDN) called Open Connect, designed to deliver its video traffic more efficiently, and leading to market jitters for general-purpose CDNs such as Akamai – more details here.

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