Can you share a few details about IO River as a company and its founding story?
The idea for IO River came from our deep experience in Edge Computing. My co-founder, Michael Hakimi, and I worked together on Akamai’s Core Edge Compute, and even back then, we knew this technology was going to change everything. What used to be a black box was starting to open up—suddenly, Edge wasn’t just a locked-down system but something that could run external code. Until that point, customers simply didn’t have the option to deploy their own logic at the Edge. During recent years, we saw more and more enterprise companies shifting to a Multi-CDN strategy, and it was obvious that this was where the industry was headed. In a world where you can’t stand being non-available, you can’t afford to lag behind—and relying on just one CDN just doesn’t cut it anymore. The problem? Multi-CDN setups create a massive operational headache and drive up costs. That’s where Edge Compute came in. It was exactly what the industry needed to solve this challenge—and that’s why we built IO River.What can you tell me about your Virtual Edge solution and its security and traffic control services?
To really get what makes Virtual Edge special—and why it’s such a game changer—let’s take a quick trip back to 2009 when Cedexis was founded. Cedexis had a solid idea: a Traffic Control solution that lets you shift traffic between different CDNs based on their performance. Sounds great, right? The catch was that it only solved part of the Multi-CDN puzzle. You still had to deal with uniform configurations, a single security setup, log management, and a bunch of other headaches. That’s where IO River’s Virtual Edge comes in. It gives you full control over your multi-CDN setup, making it feel like you’re managing just one CDN. When it comes to traffic management, our tech automatically detects downtime and kicks in with a failover, making sure your products never experience an outage. But that’s not all—it also adapts to what matters most to you. If top performance is your priority, our system routes traffic to the fastest CDN. If you’re looking to cut down costs, it finds the most budget-friendly option without sacrificing performance. And let’s talk about configuration management. With Virtual Edge, you set everything up once, and we handle the rest across all your CDNs. Even if a CDN provider is missing key features, we’ve got it covered. Security is a unique challenge—it’s more of an art than a science (even though it may seem highly technical at first glance). Art, by nature, is open to interpretation. To put it simply, different WAF engines may handle the same threat in different ways. As a result, running a WAF on each of your CDN providers is ineffective. The key to achieving consistent cross-vendor protection lies in an application that can see the full traffic picture and operate across multiple vendors. IO River is developing a WAF security app that runs at the Edge compute layer to address this challenge.What is the process of CDN Migration with IO River?
Many customers avoid migrating from one CDN to another because the process is just too complex, even when they stand to gain a lot. It’s genuinely difficult—there’s a reason some companies focus entirely on this. We quickly realized that helping more customers build their Multi-CDN infrastructure isn’t just an extra service—it’s part of our mission. So we decided to take action. We offer three completely free solutions to make migration easier at critical points in the migration process. The first challenge is choosing the right CDN. It’s a big decision that involves both technical and commercial considerations, and the best way to make an informed choice is to compare providers properly. Our tool lets you set up your chosen CDNs on our platform virtually and inject your current CDN’s configuration in just two clicks. You give us access, we take care of the setup, and any additional CDN you add will automatically inherit the existing configurations. Once a new CDN is in place, the next big step is figuring out if it’s actually the right one. Our system helps customers test and compare multiple providers based on key metrics, so they can see who delivers the best performance in different regions, which provider is the most stable, and much more—all in one place. Finally, there’s the actual traffic migration. Moving traffic from one CDN to another might sound simple, but it needs to be done carefully. We make it possible to shift traffic gradually and safely, avoiding issues that could affect users. And if something goes wrong, rolling back is instant, so there’s no unnecessary risk. By removing the usual migration headaches, we’re making it much easier for customers to build and optimize their Multi-CDN setup—without the usual stress.What other services and benefits do you offer?
We take a highly customer-centric approach to building our product. To really offer a complete solution, we’re always talking to our customers, trying to figure out which needs the industry hasn’t fully addressed yet. One of the biggest gaps we’ve seen is the need for a unified edge compute layer—the ability to run the same code across multiple edge platforms at the same time and execute complex business functions right at the edge, close to the end user. That’s exactly what we’ve built. It’s a great example of how we’re breaking down technical barriers between different edge platforms. We’re the bridge that gets them all speaking the same language, even though they were each designed in their own unique way. Another solution we offer actually came from a completely different type of challenge—one that’s not just about tech. Managing multiple contracts with different CDNs, committing to fixed usage levels to get better pricing, and figuring out which provider best fits your needs—it’s a nightmare. Expecting customers to go through all of that just to build a multi-CDN setup? That’s a massive roadblock. So we decided to handle that part, too. IO River works directly with most major edge platforms worldwide and has secured wholesale agreements with them. This means we can build a custom “Edge mix” for each customer, get them significantly lower pricing that matches their needs, and remove the hassle of managing multiple provider contracts. From the customer’s perspective, IO River is their one-stop shop—a single provider that takes care of everything.What can we expect from the company going forward?
Our close work with CDN providers has opened up a fascinating world. A lot of us are familiar with local CDNs in places like China or South America—regions where content delivery isn’t as strong, so there’s a real need for a local provider like CDNNetworks, AliCDN, and more. But the truth is, there are tons of local CDNs all over the world. And we’ve come to realize that building the Perfect Edge Mix isn’t just about stacking global CDNs—it’s about knowing when to bring a local one into the mix. Take a Bollywood VOD service, for example. Most of the audience is in India, but the content is also watched by Indians around the world. In this case, you’d need a strong local CDN in India, along with a global one that covers the rest of the world. The challenge? Helping local CDNs integrate and work alongside the global players. That’s exactly what we’re setting out to do—be a home for these local CDNs and make it easier for them to plug into our infrastructure. Another big thing we’re seeing is the rise of specialized tools for video streaming. No surprise there—video streaming is by far the biggest user of Multi-CDN, whether it’s for improving performance or cutting costs. The industry has matured a lot, and companies are getting much better at measuring streaming performance accurately. Unlike SaaS, where you can track performance at the CDN level, streaming services need to measure it from the player itself. That’s where OTT monitoring tools come in. They let streaming platforms measure performance from the player and, with the right integration, automatically switch between CDNs based on real-time data. When combined with IO River, this can make a massive difference in performance. And that’s exactly the kind of progress we love to see.To learn more about IO River, you can visit www.ioriver.io
