Easily compare Tata Communications and CacheFly for POP locations, products, pricing, features & support. We hope this helps you better understand the similarities and differences between these content delivery networks.
Company
| Company | Tata Communications | CacheFly |
|---|---|---|
| Short profile | Tata Communications is a full service, carrier grade, global CDN that has been in operation since their acquisition of BitGravity in 2012. The CDN rides on Tata’s global infrastructure which is the largest Tier 1 network in the world. Tata’s ownership of the network and peering relationships enable it to be very competitive when it comes to price. | Launched in 2002, CacheFly developed the world's first TCP-anycast based content delivery network. CacheFly has a focus on optimizing the CDN for throughput and has steadily built out the network to now have 50+ POPs on 6 continents. CacheFly provides a 100% uptime SLA and takes pride in acting as 'consultants to our customers'. |
Products
| Product | Tata Communications | CacheFly |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | Dynamic Site Acceleration | |
| Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) | Whole Site Acceleration | |
| Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) | Large Object Rapid Delivery | |
| Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? | Live Streaming | Ultra Low Latency Video Streaming |
| Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | Video On Demand | VoD |
| Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Smart Image Optimization | |
| DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | ||
| WAFWeb Application Firewall | CDN Security | |
| Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | CDN Security | |
| Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | Fully custom solution | |
| Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | Custom solutions available for edge scripting |
Network
How many POP locations do Tata Communications and CacheFly have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Tata Communications | CacheFly |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 8 | 17 |
| Latin America | 0 | 18 |
| Europe | 4 | 16 |
| Russia & CIS | 0 | 0 |
| Asia excl. China | 10 | 7 |
| China | 0 | 2 |
| Oceania | 1 | 3 |
| Middle East | 1 | 5 |
| Africa | 0 | 1 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | Tata Communications | CacheFly |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | Unknown | 1 month |
| Minimum monthly costs | Unknown | $0 (5 TB/m) |
| Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests | Unknown | No |
| Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred | Unknown | No |
| NA/EU traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.03 per GB |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.03 per GB |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.03 per GB |
Features
| Web acceleration | Tata Communications | CacheFly |
|---|---|---|
| Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | ||
| Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | <10 minutes | 5 - 180s depending on the change |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
Global Anycasted network
Tata recommends against root domain though, as they may make changes in DNS at any time
|
Must purchase dedicated IP
Or use DNS provider that can do CNAME flattening
|
| HTTP/2 | End of 2017 | |
| HTTP/3 | ||
| WebSockets | ||
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | Custom enablement | |
| Compression Reduce file size for faster delivery |
Resend from origin
Always fetch compressed from origin
|
Resend from origin |
| Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? | HTTP and HTTPS |
HTTP and HTTPS
Match client to edge request protocol is possible
|
| Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? | Can't configure specific other Host header | Set specific Host header value or forward value from client to edge request. Support for AWS Origin Secret Key Header |
| Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP |
Tiered architecture, not single POP shield
Tata support is needed to enable/configure this
|
|
| Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | ||
| Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | FTP or Cloud Storage can be enabled | |
| Cache control - CDN caching | Full and granular control | Origin headers are honored. Can config caching overrides |
| Cache control - client caching | Full and granular control | Origin headers are forwarded to client. Can config overrides |
| Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
CacheFly support team can activate this edge behaviour | |
| Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN |
No longer than 2 mins, often much faster | Purge Speed |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all, purge by directory, not by tag or header | Purge all and by directory, not by tag or header |
| Analytics |
Many metrics in the UI
2 seconds refresh ('instant') possible at extra charge
|
Near real-time, lots of metrics |
| Log files |
Refreshed every 24h. Available via FTP
15m refresh possible at extra charge
|
Pull via FTP or have pushed with Log Streaming to customer endpoint
Logs are 5 minutes delayed
|
| API | Purge, configuration. Not analytics | Purge, analytics, configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | Tata Communications | CacheFly |
|---|---|---|
| CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | Free | |
| Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate | ||
| Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN |
SNI. Pricing is custom.
Update cert via UI or API
|
Upload your own Certificate or Include Automatic Certificate |
| Token authentication | Self-service activation/configuration | |
| Geo blocking | Self-service activation/configuration. Predefined and custom rules | |
| Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | Their support team is needed | |
| Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | Available in a Custom/Private CDN scenario | |
| IP white/blacklisting |
White or black listing. IP addresses and CIDR blocks
Customer can configure self in UI
|
Custom rules can be scripted (by support team at no extra charge) |
Support
| Customer support | Tata Communications | CacheFly |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Some documentation, not public | Yes, public |
| Humans | All customers get 24/7 email and phone support. | All customers get 24/7 email and phone support and a dedicated implementation/solutions engineer. Extra support ('Elite managed') available at a fee with SLA for support response time |