Edgio Revamps Application Platform for CDN
Content delivery network (CDN) provider Edgio Inc. (Nasdaq: EGIO) released a new version of its application development platform, illustrating again how CDN players are becoming purveyors of international cloud networks, edge applications, and Internet on-ramps.
Edgio was formed in June 2022 by the union of CDN Limelight Networks with Yahoo CDN Edgecast. Previously, in September 2021, Limelight had acquired a company called Layer0, maker of a SaaS-based application acceleration and development platform, from parent Moov Corporation. The solutions of all three companies have now been unified in a single platform, Edgio Applications Platform v7.
Central to this upgrade of Edgio’s platform is application development via Jamstack, a popular architecture for creating Websites comprising JavaScript, APIs, and Markup (hence the JAM in Jamstack). Prior to its acquisition by Edgio, Layer0 competed effectively with vendors of Jamstack-oriented platforms such as Netlify and Vercel, as well as products such as AWS Amplify and Cloudflare Pages, which deploy the architecture. Layer0’s speciality was applying Jamstack to enormous e-commerce applications.
Applications Platform v7 is thus geared to large-scale Web apps that can tap into Edgio’s CDN network, which the vendor claims offers 200 Tb/s edge capacity via 300 global points of presence (PoPs) with over 7,000 ISP connections. The platform also specializes in adding security to its application development, including API-driven protection against DDoS, bots, and other automated threats. Applications Platform v7 also integrates with multiple security information and event management (SIEM); security orchestration, automaton, and response (SOAR); and Terraform systems.
An Enterprise Play
Edgio’s new platform is aimed at enterprises such as Mars Wrigley, which has adopted it for e-commerce apps. “By partnering with Edgio and utilizing key components of its Application platform, we are able to create a modern architecture that allows us to develop and launch high-performance experiences across our brands, resulting in faster page loads, a better online user experience, and ultimately increased opportunity for conversion,” said Kyle Barz, IT Director, Mars Wrigley.
Another customer is Shoe Carnival, which touts Edgio’s security capabilities. “With the addition of Edgio’s security solutions, we now have greater visibility into potential vulnerabilities, fewer false positives, and the speed required to deploy new rules and address attempted attacks efficiently and effectively,” said Kent Zimmerman, Shoe Carnival’s VP of E-commerce and Marketing Technology.
A Needed Boost
Edgio could use the boost of a new platform to tap its CDN potential. The vendor has suffered a couple of blows to its stock lately. In March 2023 it sent a note to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stating that it needed to restate its revenue in past financials. At issue were the revenues declared for Open Edge, Edgio's ISP caching solution. As a result of the errors, Edgio was unable to file its annual report in the timeframe required by the SEC. That agency subsequently slammed Edgio with a notice that Edgio was no longer in compliance with requirements for public listing. The company has until September 12, 2023, to get its annual report in to the SEC and get back on track with Nasdaq.
The revenue corrections have resulted in shareholder investigations and other headaches for Edgio management. Edgio has lost nearly 85% of its share value over the past year and is trading at a meager 74 cents as of this writing. Perhaps this upgrade in a key market area – edge application development – will improve its fortunes.
