A few months ago I told you that Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), is in the process of building a network CDN, Content Delivery Network, which will allow it to increase the speed with which it delivers its digital content and software updates. From then until now the company Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), completed part of the project and has partially activated its CDN network in Europe and the USA, the software for the OS X platform being delivered through it.
In addition, Apple has interconnect deals in place with multiple ISPs, including Comcast and others, and has paid to get direct access to their networks. Doing trace routes on OS X downloads from multiple ISPs now shows them coming from directly from Apple's CDN, as you can see with the example below.
– te-0-7-0-9-sur02.lowell.ma.boston.comcast.net (68.87.159.37)
– be-21-ar01.needham.ma.boston.comcast.net (68.85.106.45)
– he-1-12-0-0-cr01.newyork.ny.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.90.253)
– he-4-15-0-0-cr01.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.87.197)
– he-0-11-0-1-pe04.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.82.222)
– as714-2-c.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net (66.208.228.214)
– usqas1-vip-sx-003.aaplimg.com (17.253.0.223)
Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), has signed interconnection contracts with a multitude of internet service providers and is going to sign others to increase its content delivery capacity up to 10 times. Although Apple now has the ability to deliver a few streams of data to users, it continues to use its old partners to deliver content from the iTunes Store or iTunes Radio.
By the end of this year, it is estimated that Apple will invest up to 100 million dollars in its CDN network and would increase the speeds with which it allows us to download software through its servers.
