(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – Content delivery network software developer and management solutions provider Aflexi (www.aflexi.net) has launched its FlexiMart platform (www.aflexi.net/technology/fleximart), which lets web hosts easily buy, sell and trade bandwidth instantly.
According to its Tuesday announcement, Aflexi FlexiMart enables web hosts to share infrastructure by allowing them to buy, sell and trade capacity, in real time and on the fly, both at a fixed price and via auction-like bidding, letting CDNs, content providers and web hosting service providers merge and expand their networks as needed.
“Why pay for infrastructure that is only needed for a fraction of the time?” asks Aflexi chief executive officer Whei Wong. “Aflexi provides a platform for web hosts to trade excess capacity, resulting in a win-win situation. There is no need to pay big CDNs their exorbitant rates when you can get all the bandwidth and POPs you need from other CDN operators.”
Web hosts and CDNs can market their unused bandwidth, while oversubscribed networks can quickly and cost-effectively expand as needed to meet sudden demand surges, potentially transforming Internet competitors into business partners.
FlexiMart also includes a powerful search engine, which enables regional bandwidth searching that can be narrowed down to “All Time” and “Off Peak Only” traffic. Using this system, one can quickly discover all available bandwidth within specific regions offered by different CDN operators. This helps buyers enhance traffic performance at desired locations and time period by purchasing region-specific bandwidth instead of global bandwidth.
“We plan to add many more features to FlexiMart,” added Wong. “One of our current projects involves system intelligence where the system will forecast, negotiate and eventually suggest the right deal to the buyer/seller.”
Aflexi first unveiled its FlexiMart platform in August at HostingCon 2009 in Washington DC. The Malaysia-based company has long advocated “collaborative” content delivery management solutions, having launched a new CDN service platform in January to provide web hosts and content distributors high performance, scalable and secure content distribution via a network of ISPs rather than relying on a single network or a handful of providers like some CDNs.
