In this morning's roundup on the content delivery network (CDN) sector, we linked a post from Contentinople speculating that Internap may eventually write off its struggling CDN business. This post has sparked some additional discussion from CDN-focused bloggers, including Rob Powell from Telecom Ramblings:
From a strategic standpoint, a CDN product has always made sense alongside Internap's high end blended transit and colocation. That's why they were reselling Akamai's services before this debacle even started - their customer base really does have interest in CDN services. What Internap has failed at (so far) is execution, not strategy. They have to convince both themselves and their customers that they know how to run a CDN, else they need to sell out to someone who can.
Paolo Gorgo from Nortia Research offers a different take:
What I slightly disagree on is that it was only lack of execution. Internap put all its strategic focus on CDN. If you just read their latest annual report, you'll still notice CDN is mentioned twice as much as the other business segments... That to me was choosing the WRONG strategy for the Company - which worries me even more than suffering an integration problem or having inherited a bad customer base.
Paolo says the company's colocation business was "kind of put on hold" as a result. Dan Rayburn also adds his thoughts. See our Internap Channel for more background on the company.
