Researchers Map Locations of Servers in Netflix’s Content Delivery Network
spectrum.ieee.org
spectrum.ieee.org
I'm also curious if the public disclosure of this info means the researchers didn't bother to do the same reverse engineering for say YouTube?
Disclosure: I work at Google on Cloud, but don't work on edge caching.
> The New Cloud Atlas is a global effort to map each data place that makes up the cloud in an open and accountable way. We have set out to find and map each warehouse data centre, each internet exchange, each connecting cable and switch. Anything of any physical significance in the operation of the cloud should be observed is some way, and recorded for everyone to see and use.
The Netflix one runs at a few gigabit/sec at all times. The Apple one keeps the WAN from going down on update day.
I would imagine Apple provides something similar.
They aren't saying they've demonstrated quantum teleportation, or anything. But for the subject matter at hand (and given that Netflix runs one of the largest CDNs in the world), it's quite impressive.
They use devices they call "Openconnect" for peering in ISPs https://openconnect.netflix.com/en/
Who wants to bet that in the next year we'll see their hostnames change to be random-looking instead?
http://www.techhive.com/article/2158040/how-netflix-streams-...
It claims each server serves up to 10,000 streams simultaneously. So operational peak capacity is at ~50M simultaneous streams.
Also, 10k streams at 1080p would be ~70Gbps per machine at full HD, or ~20Gbps per machine at SD. With some blend of course being the norm.
There is of course a big difference between being capable of and actual and FUD.
I'd really love to know what the internals of one of their streaming servers might look like.
Anyone here who has architected a box with that capacity?
Still would love to know more about the internals of their servers and support infrastructure.
I believe there are some slight differences between what Netflix uses and the OpenConnect machines placed inside ISP networks, but not by very much.
If memory serves... SuperMicro motherboards, multiple Mellanox/Chelsio 10 Gbps NICs (probably upgraded to 40 Gbps by now, or getting close to that point), a bunch (up to 28, perhaps?) of hard drives (with no/little redundancy for thecontent), and a ton of RAM (for ZFS ARC).
They run on (heavily tuned) FreeBSD operating system.
Russia is not a friendly country to do business in
China is closed off behind the Great Firewall and probably already has a local netflix clone
India, I do not know, could be cost issues?
As a tech sector APAC manager I have been instructed more than once not to visit. Not for any internal conference, and definitely not for any customer contact, and to take verifiable steps to avoid making "management decisions" if visiting for a holiday. Typical quote, "You do not want to be the guy that triggered tax obligations for us in India".
IANAL but I believe it's due to the broad framing of India's "place of effective management" rules.
This sort of thing ends up being mostly to Singapore's benefit, transnationals won't place their APAC region office in India as a result.
You're looking at taxation for resident income, and source income. Sure, a local entity should pay tax at source, in your case India, but unless you're sitting in India and taking global decisions or decisions creating significant global impact, no need to pay on resident income.
IANAL but this is my experience interacting mainly with large corporate. You might want to ask legal in your company or have an international independent auditor advise; don't want the wool may well being pulled over your eyes. And that would be bad, as it would be a dereliction of trust. And I've seen that a lot when, non India specific, but offshored locations try to build ill-founded silos.
In Germany Netflix is "meh" but the only half-decent alternative is Amazon Prime, which isn't better at all.
Subtitles are a deal-breaker for me, so I've been sourcing my movies from a local brick-and-stone DVD rental after Netflix clamped down on the VPN and DNS workarounds. Surprisingly the series offering in Netflix is quite OK in this regard though.
Not these "pirates" guys. They seem to have all of the good stuff and some more, so they outcompete Netflix outside the US quite well.
Is Netflix blocking VPNs? Yes. They didn't use to, but they started doing it around a month or so ago. Some VPNs could route around it, some couldn't.
Alternative answer: using a VPN is against Netflix' TOS, so it's not really different from regular piracy. You could argue that you pay for convenience, but you could also argue that if you are going to open yourself to a lawsuit, you might not want to do it with your personal credit card.