A next generation CDN

At Transparent Edge, we live up to our name, and transparency is one of the values guiding the relationships with our clients. We are transparent when it comes to the technologies we use and how we work. That transparency is what we want to take to the next level so that the expertise and know-how of our team will contribute to the interest of the community and anyone who’s interested in Internet infrastructures, such as next-generation CDNs. In the end, we’re champions of open-source software, and we’re behind the only European CDN that is competing against American CDNs. 

This contribution to the community demands a long term commitment. The first step is right in front of you: we will share our knowledge via monthly blog posts written and signed by our technicians, showing the resolution of problems we see daily, implementations, product development, and more. Our goal is to be useful to anyone in this area, so of course we appreciate any feedback you’d like to give us. 

SOLUTIONS FOR TECH ENTHUSIASTS

Surely, we won’t get to be a replacement for Stack Overflow, but we can assure that we will help a desperate technician ready to find solutions, and above all, understand why we apply said solutions to solve our problems. Meaning, we’re starting a monthly series from geeky technicians, to dedicated technicians. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.  

When it comes to scalability, we’re not the average Spanish company. With over ten thousand million requests served daily from our next-generation CDN, these “one in a million problems” happen every 8.6 seconds. Having a platform capable of identifying, managing and correcting these issues has been a major challenge throughout these years. 

Automating the detection of anomalies, and having the CDN Platform making autonomous self-healing decisions, was a goal from the moment our company was born. This allows us to make atypical and bold decisions in incident management. We don’t have a “level 1”, not even a dedicated support team. 

The (very) low volume of incidents not contemplated and requiring human intervention to be solved go directly to a member of our Systems Team: we’re always talking about a high-level engineer involved in evolving the platform. This provides two benefits: on one hand, clients are sure that their problem is in the best hands from the start and not going through an endless chain of support escalation levels. On the other hand, we have direct contact with the issues that clients have, so we clearly see what needs to be improved, and document the process thoroughly. 

VCL McGYVERS

We have the best team for this job. Technicians working at Transparent Edge are high level profiles, with extensive experience in web scalability, high availability, caching, architecture, APIs design and many other things. People that recite paragraphs of HTTP RFC more fluently than the Bible. Linux’s gurus that can tweak the TCP parameter in sysctl during a storm. VCL McGyvers capable of developing complex functionalities with a safety pin, two headers and a piece of gum. 

All the guests writing articles are the heroes of Transparent Edge, a next-generation CDN, top individuals in their fields providing solutions to complex issues, and from now on, sharing this with you. 

We hope you enjoy reading about these problems as much as we enjoy sweating to solve them.

Diego Suárez, Director of Technology at Transparent Edge.

If you ever look for Diego, you will find him almost certainly wherever there’s an operating system, and you won’t find him taking the easy way out, but rather facing the more complex alternative. Being always on the cutting edge gives him the versatility and vision required to develop the technology strategy that is the gravitational center of Transparent Edge. Always between development and systems, he doesn’t neglect other areas, always maintaining contact with the user, for whom every technology company works.