A Web content serving utility

Abstract

Utility computing allows users, or customers, to utilize advanced technologies without having to build a dedicated infrastructure. Customers can use a shared infrastructure and pay only for the capacity that each one needs. Each utility offers a specific information technology service, delivered on a pay-as-you-go model. This paper describes the design and development of a content-serving utility (CSU) that provides highly scalable Web content distribution over the Internet. We provide a technology overview of content distribution and a summary of the CSU from a customer perspective. We discuss the technical architecture underlying the service, including topics such as physical infrastructure, core service functions, infrastructure management, security, and usage-based billing. We then focus on the key issues affecting the performance and capacity of both the service infrastructure and the customer Web sites it supports.