Today we announced the availability of two new reports from EyeWonder Interactive Advertising Services: Utilizing Video as a Path to Conversion and Tipping Point: A European Perspective on Online Video Advertising.

The first, using proprietary EyeWonder data on video ad interaction metrics, discusses how video affects brand awareness and direct response. The report also gives best practice suggestions by quoting aggregate stats from EyeWonder video campaigns, such as:

• Number of video ads by length of video
• Video completion rates by length of video
• Average video time reviewed by vertical

The second discusses the state of the European video advertising market and includes contributions from some of the region’s top industry thought leaders, including Nils Rohrig, GroupM Germany; Errol Baran, Channel 4 UK; Sonia Mamin, smartclip France; Wesley ter Haar, MediaMonks; and Emma Hallerstedt, Aftonbladet.

To download free copies of the reports, please visit the Resources section of our website.

Recently, our VP of Global Services David Frigeri sat down with Network World’s Jim Malone for an audiocast discussion on the next phase of cloud computing. The talk covers market drivers for moving into the cloud, capacity considerations, and how to plan for data and/or systems migration. It’s an excellent exploration of what many companies are facing today in an era of global audiences (consumers, employees, etc.) and distributed infrastructure. Register here, and take a listen to the discussion for free.

There’s been an explosion in both IaaS and cloud computing activity over the last six months, with new players entering the field, and more and more companies recognizing the need for distributed storage and processing resources. It’s one thing, however, to outsource hardware and CPU cycles, and quite another to have those resources provided as part of a managed service. Both outsourcing models exist, but there are still wide gaps in understanding around what specific services are available, and where it make sense to transition from the former model to the latter.

The sheer infrastructure capacity required to support an online business today is enough to force many companies to look outside their own data centers and delivery networks. The fear there, however, is finding an option that meets specific business requirements as they relate to outsourced infrastructure assets. For an enterprise, the worry might be around security and guaranteed uptime. For a media company, it might be around knowing how to manage software issues like media encoding and user authentication on an outsourced hardware platform. In addition, different industries have different major players involved. If there’s any interfacing to be done with one of these third-party industry companies – say a telecom carrier, for example – then an outsourced infrastructure solution has to be provisioned and managed for that scenario.

The bottom line here is that infrastructure outsourcing today – and its offshoot, cloud computing – goes beyond the vision of grid computing a decade or so ago. Managed services can and often should play a key role. In fact, what we may see in the coming months is a growth in specialized IaaS offerings that cater to different industries and business needs. Gigabytes (terabytes, petabytes…), CPU cycles, and bandwidth capacity do not exist in a vacuum. Putting them to work toward a specific purpose is what IaaS offerings should do for the growing legion of web-based companies looking to offload infrastructure management as a non-core business function.

Another day, another acquisition. Today we announced that Limelight Networks has acquired AcceloWeb, a company that brings with it technology for accelerating the presentation layer of websites and applications. Check out the demo for a side-by-side comparison of a site loading with AcceloWeb and one without. You’ll get a sense of just how much of an impact the technology can have, and why it’s a strong addition to our suite of site acceleration services.

From the press release:

“…AcceloWeb’s technology addresses the bottleneck of presenting a site or application within a browser. The technology requires zero configuration and no pre-optimization, and does not require any changes to existing web development workflow, reconfiguration of site or application resources, installation of a hardware appliance or any server side, browser or desktop plug-ins…”

It’s that time again, and in case you missed it, we announced first quarter earnings for Limelight Networks late on Thursday. Here are some of the highlights.

• Revenue of $49.8 million in Q1
• Delivering 2.5 billion objects hourly
• Storage capacity of 11+ PB
• 11+ billion online add impressions served in Q1
• Mobile internet and tablet computing revenue growth approximately 300% year-over-year
• Online video platform growth approximately 100% year-over-year
• Site and application acceleration services growth exceeded 100% year over year

Several publications covered our acquisition announcement from yesterday, including GigaOM and Telecom Ramblings as excerpted below. Analyst Jim Davis at Tier1 Research also had interesting insights on the deal, but you must be a subscriber or active trialist to access his report. In the meantime, see what Ryan Lawler and Rob Powell had to say.

GigaOM: Limelight Adds CMS to the Cloud With Clickability Buy

“…The acquisition is similar to a few other purchases that Limelight has made, according to CEO Jeff Lunsford, who we spoke with via phone. In looking at potential acquisitions, Limelight looks for quality teams that have built a good product but haven’t had great luck with sales and marketing. It then fits the technology and team in with its own architecture, and hopes to accelerate revenues by selling across its customer base.

What you get when you buy a company like this is 60 happy customers and a team with deep domain expertise that is usually happy to be a part of something bigger than they were,” Lunsford said. The strategy has worked so far, particularly with the acquisition of video distribution platform Delve Networks. While Delve was also purchased on the cheap, under Limelight the platform has doubled its revenues…”

Telecom Ramblings: Limelight Acquires Clickability

“Limelight Networks (NASDAQ:LLNW, news, filings) took another step into the cloud yesterday with the acquisition of Clickability. Clickability is a software-as-a-service provider of web content management tools, meaning they enable their customers to create and manage their website content via their specialized software and distributed server infrastructure. Limelight will take that offering and integrate it alongside its traditional CDN business, video platform, and the EyeWonder advertising services, where in fact it does seem to fit quite nicely.

With this acquisition, Limelight continues to expand its value-added services portfolio, and thus increases the overall revenue opportunity for its products while decreasing its dependence on the products that make up the more traditional CDN sector…”

Image from Cisco keynote presentation at Light Reading Cable event

Cable TV operators have debated loudly about transitioning to IP delivery since about 2008. However, the discussions have gotten a lot less theoretical, and a lot more reality-based in the last year. At an event held by Light Reading Cable yesterday, industry execs were willing to make some predictions on timing for an industry shift, and the numbers suggest we’re not all that far off from widespread deployments of TV over IP.

Cisco’s Ken Morse predicted cable operators will be delivering over IP from end to end in the next seven to ten years, and in the next three years we’ll start to see a lot of IP devices from cable operators in the home. Meanwhile, Anthony Wood, CEO of Roku and the acknowledged inventor of the DVR, believes that at least one cable operator will deliver a fully over-the-top Internet video service in the next 12 to 24 months. That’s not IP delivery in the way cablecos traditionally think of it, but it is a form of IPTV, and certainly a very different model from the one operators use today.

All of the predictions aren’t coming out of nowhere. First, the situation is reasonably analogous to cable’s shift from analog to digital, and that transition took about 15 years altogether. Second, several cable operators have been very vocal about the changes they’re enacting on their networks as part of the migration to IP. Comcast exec Sree Kotay talked at length yesterday about some of the changes going on within the cable giant’s network infrastructure, including plans for temporarily blending QAM and IP delivery, creating ways to enable developers access to Comcast systems at the edge of the network for faster innovation, and the institution of a true beta platform for testing beta video products on a live IP network before deployment.

Interestingly, as the IP migration takes place, the cable industry is learning some of the lessons Limelight Networks learned in the early years of becoming the first video-optimized content delivery network: lessons on how to distribute content most effectively, how to scale infrastructure systems for rapid growth, and how to contain costs. There’s a lot of infrastructure work that many operators will ultimately manage by partnering with or even fully outsourcing to other companies. Particularly in the era of Internet everywhere, few operators will be able to go it alone. More importantly, even fewer will want to when their margins are made elsewhere.

If you’ve always dreamed of having your own live Roku channel, now’s your chance. Limelight customer Imavex has launched a service with encoding partner Kulabyte for live content streaming to Roku boxes and Apple iOS devices. And in true Imavex fashion, the company is already working across a number of verticals to make live, cross-platform HD streaming an affordable reality. Think retail, sports, health, and more. In a press release at NAB this week, Imavex specifically announced a new deal for its STREAMOTOR Studio360 solution with Social Streaming Systems, a company specializing in creating web TV stations. But there’s more customer news on the way. Not to mention news of expanding platform support.

The big benefit of the Imavex solution is that it builds a central hub for companies and organizations to syndicate content out to multiple platforms. Until now, the service has only supported video-on-demand delivery, but after working closely with Limelight (using Limelight HTTP delivery services and Limelight REACH), Imavex has added live event and live 24/7 programming to the mix.

And now the fun part. Just imagine how this service can be used. Retail chains can more easily broadcast content to TVs in their stores. Corporations can stream user conferences or training sessions on a private Roku channel. And sports organizations can reach fans everywhere with live games and events, all beautifully rendered on the big-screen HD TV.

For the customers Imavex is working with now, there are two main drivers for launching live IP-based content. One is the desire to create a recurring revenue model based on content subscription fees from association members, consumers, etc. The other is to get off of satellite television and move to the more flexible, cost-effective, and user-accessible IPTV platform.

Stay tuned for more Imavex news soon… here and on your Roku.

Want to start an OTT video business? As long as you’ve got the content, taking it to the masses just got a lot easier. We announced a deal with mgMEDIA this morning to provide the media delivery platform for the company’s Open4Connect solution, a one-stop shop for media distribution. mgMEDIA can now offer encoding/transcoding, DRM, delivery to connected devices, connectivity, and storage and advertising aggregation for any company’s Internet video service. That’s the whole enchilada of video delivery. Or as the press release puts it, everything you need for “over-the-top (OTT), global multi-device distribution.”

One of mgMEDIA’s current partners for Open4Connect is Samsung. Samsung in Spain is using mgMEDIA’s solution to port on-demand video to consumers across tablets, smartphones, TV, and the web. Other customer targets include broadcasters, TV networks, and telcos/ISPs.

What’s interesting about this news is that it’s another signal showing we’ve entered into an age of democratized distribution. Anyone, from the biggest broadcasters to the smallest start-ups, can now get content out to audiences everywhere. It’s not a matter of building up infrastructure scale or developing specialized software. Those tools are available on-demand. And everyone has access.

In a recent webinar with MarketingProfs, we ran out of time before addressing all of the questions from the audience. Here’s a condensed version of what was left over (some questions have been combined), along with answers from our own Sandy Shanman.

Sometimes rich media can slow down or crash computers of customers with older machines. Are there any ways to balance that out and not lose/annoy those customers?

Yes! This is one of the primary arguments for web acceleration services. A content delivery partner can help you optimize the site experience for your users by improving performance in the network, and therefore taking a lot of the burden off the end-user’s device. Even if an old PC doesn’t render media as quickly as a new one would, the performance gains from network delivery optimization help to make up the difference and create the richest experience for consumers. In addition, techniques like adaptive bit-rate streaming respond to users’ connection settings to deliver media at a quality level that their individual devices can handle. An older computer on a low-bandwidth Internet connection might not be able to handle HD video, but with adaptive streaming it can still access the same video at a lower bit-rate.

Beyond web acceleration, there are numerous ways to improve site performance to make sure a media-heavy site doesn’t leave some customers behind. Examples include improving the underlying code (combining scripts and stylesheets, optimizing site search, etc.), and making sure to compress every file on your site – even the smallest objects. This is something you can do on your own, or we offer site optimization services including site Health Checks.

How should publishers deal with premium content and issues of content theft? What is the best way to deliver video content securely to purchasers and end-users?

The best way to secure content is to use encryption and authentication. Among our content security services, we offer Media Vault, which embeds an authentication code into your URL. Only authorized users can then access the content on that page. Other features with the service include the ability to authorize only specific IP addresses or blocks of addresses, and the ability to set a time window when access is allowed.

Can HTML5 emails by read by mobile phones?

It depends on the mobile phone. For those that don’t support HTML emails, you should offer text-only versions. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t still make use of rich media. Our Limelight REACH service creates a Universal URL for any media content you want to use, and that link can be embedded in text emails, SMS messages, and anywhere else. The Universal URL automatically detects what type of device an end-user has and provides media playback tailored to that device. If the phone has a web connection, it will be able to access your rich-media content.

With the growth of Android/iPhone market, where does that leave the traditional BlackBerry user?

BlackBerry devices still make up a large percentage of consumer smartphones, which means publishers can’t afford to bypass the platform. ComScore’s latest report still puts BlackBerry market share in the US at close to 29%. That’s an audience too big to ignore.