> Open Connect is the name of the global network that is responsible for delivering Netflix TV shows and movies to our members worldwide. This type of network is typically
referred to as a “Content Delivery Network” or “CDN” because its job is to deliver
internetbased content efficiently by bringing the content that people watch close to
where they’re watching it. The Open Connect network shares some characteristics with
other CDNs, but also has some important differences.
Netflix began the Open Connect initiative in 2011, as a response to the everincreasing
scale of Netflix streaming. We started the program for two reasons:
1) As Netflix grew to be a significant portion of overall traffic on consumer Internet
Service Provider (ISP) networks, it became important to be able to work with
those ISPs in a direct and collaborative way.
2) Creating a content delivery solution customized for Netflix allowed us to design a
proactive, directed caching solution that is much more efficient than the standard
demand driven CDN solution, reducing the overall demand on upstream network
capacity by several orders of magnitude.
