Varnish Software and Intel approach 400Gbps video CDN performance

Varnish Software announced new CDN performance milestones for Video-On-Demand (VOD) and Live Linear use cases.

Varnish Software, an Intel Network Builders ecosystem partner, tested the performance of its Varnish Edge Cloud solution under real-world conditions. The tests used 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based servers conforming to the Intel Select Solution for Visual Cloud Delivery Network. These servers were further configured with hardware acceleration and software optimization, including NUMA-awareness capabilities.

The results, first unveiled in a virtual demo at MWC Barcelona, show:

• Video on demand CDN (1 socket): Up to 192 Gbps network throughput with 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable platform featuring gen 4 Intel DC P5510 SSD
• Video on demand CDN (2 socket): Up to 383 Gbps network throughput with 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable platform featuring gen 4 Intel DC P5510 SSD
• Live linear video CDN: up to 1.74x higher performance on 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Platform supporting Intel Optane persistent memory 200 series, compared with prior generation*

For OEMs, SIs, and CoSPs, the results also establish a specific method for building faster, more cost-effective, CDN solutions capable of handling more users at the same resolution, or serving higher-resolution content to a similar number of users. The combination of Varnish high-performance caching software and latest generation CPUs from Intel delivers the capacity, I/O and compute performance required to keep up with the growing demand for streamed content.

Lars Larsson, CEO, Varnish Software said: “Our close collaboration with Intel continues to break new ground in CDN performance. We’re not only approaching line-rate speeds and unlocking the capacity to handle huge streaming demand, but making it more cost-efficient to do so. It simplifies deployments too, showing how CoSPs can implement the solution and achieve leading performance themselves.”

Espen Braastad, VP Engineering, Varnish Software added: “Partnering with Intel means we can optimize software and hardware for the most pressing networking challenges. Our latest performance results are due, in part, to non-uniform memory access (NUMA) capabilities added in the latest Varnish software release, enabling each CPU in a dual-processor system to have direct and fast access to memory.” BCS Bureau