"We will increase customer added value through 'edge service' data accumulated in infrastructure"
Rapid response to DDoS attacks; artificial intelligence addresses new attack vectors

Limelight Networks held a press briefing to announce its 2018 strategy for targeting the video streaming market based on a CDN (Content Delivery Network) private network and penetrating the domestic media, software, and device manufacturing markets.

CDN is a service that emerged to rapidly and reliably deliver large-volume data content such as images, movies, and videos, reducing speed degradation and resolving instability issues. As network transmission of content increases explosively and utilization rates rise, the CDN market continues to show growth. According to Technavio, "the global CDN market is expected to expand at 29.66% between 2017 and 2021."



In line with this, Kim Kwang-sik, Vice President of Limelight Networks' Asia-Pacific region, stated, "To implement stable streaming, we have expanded our global CDN capacity to 31Tbps, a 52% increase from the previous level." He further explained the infrastructure status: "We have increased server capacity by 175% compared to before and reduced power consumption while adding network points of presence (PoP). Additionally, we currently store digital content in cache form across more than 80 network points of presence worldwide."

Limelight's CDN service supports native language services across countries and operates a 24-hour global network operations center. On the software side, it supports integrated video packaging and management, security software, and real-time edge analytics. At the network level, the company's differentiators include a globalized high-capacity network, private network infrastructure, distributed object storage, and edge computing and processing capabilities.

Based on this, Limelight Networks is accommodating increasing traffic. The company views 'video streaming' and 'edge services' as new business models, positioning itself to gain advantageous ground through infrastructure development. By leveraging its CDN with differentiated video technology such as high definition and low latency, Limelight aims to preempt the video streaming market and increase customer added value through data from edge services accumulated within its infrastructure.

Park Dae-sung, Country Manager of Limelight Networks Korea, emphasized: "Cloud service providers like Amazon and Alibaba also wanted to build platforms for their own markets, but circumstances were not favorable. We will lead the market by leveraging our own infrastructure."

However, addressing security issues is necessary for transmission and cloud services. Since Limelight provides CDN services delivering web content at the frontline, it is exposed to security challenges first. Through this process, the company has built expertise in security issues, data, and infrastructure. Based on this, it has formed a platform capable of analyzing and responding to attacks. Drawing on this foundation, Limelight has developed intelligence against cyber threats including DDoS attack mitigation and defense, web firewalls, malicious bot threat management, API security, and malware defense.

For example, if an employee most familiar with a bank's system attacks the bank, they could access and hack the system without error based on their system understanding. There would be no room for doubt. However, from a broader perspective, suspicion is necessary regarding why a security request is coming from a path previously not accessed. Limelight has built security by training AI-based machine learning technology in such scenarios. That is, rather than determining right or wrong, it identifies whether traffic is unknown or known.

Limelight has built its own architecture and operates scrubbing centers directly to compose super PoPs. Since attacks come to the centers from outside, when DDoS occurs, latency is reduced and rapid processing is possible with minimal performance degradation. Another characteristic of Limelight's cloud security service is an open platform allowing flexible addition of necessary functions such as malware defense and API protection. Processing 25% of global traffic daily, the company combines Cyber Threat Intelligence collected with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and security analysts' analytical capabilities. Ultimately, this minimizes zero-day vulnerabilities, enables detection and prediction of sophisticated attacks, and reduces false positives.

Limelight has achieved rapid response to DDoS incidents and addressed market concerns about new attack vectors through AI-based machine learning. The company announced plans to increase its scrubbing centers to 38 locations by the first half of this year. Limelight Networks' country manager emphasized: "We view cloud security as a major market opportunity and will concentrate our capabilities further. Through collaboration with Tencent, we will target the Chinese market and expand as a global service."