CacheFly

In the increasingly homogenized arena of CDN, most players tout themselves as “faster, more comprehensive, and smarter.”

Yet CacheFly, like a stubborn old-school craftsman, has kept the same slightly clumsy yet perfectly accurate slogan hanging on its sign for over two decades:“The Fastest CDN on Earth.” It does not chase the Serverless trend, does not build an extensive security product portfolio, and even maintains a cautious wait-and-see approach toward the emerging HTTP/3 protocol.

Its entire world is focused on a domain that accounts for an increasingly significant share of internet traffic, yet is quietly overlooked by generic CDNs:Ultra-large-scale, ultra-high-quality static large file distribution.

Understanding CacheFly means grasping a survival philosophy that has reached the pinnacle of specialization, and recognizing the unique value and solitude possessed by the player who digs deep to the right while the entire industry races frantically to the left.

I. Infrastructure Born for the Download Era

CacheFlyFounded in 2002, it was the “Bronze Age” of the internet.

Broadband began to gain traction, though speeds were still measured in hundreds of kilobits per second; Windows XP dominated the market, requiring global pushes of Service Packs that routinely exceeded hundreds of megabytes; software distribution shifted from optical discs to the internet, leading to increasingly large game patches and clients.

At that time, CDNs (such as the fledgling Akamai) primarily served images and text for news websites and e-commerce platforms. Their caching architecture and network optimization were not designed for the “long-stream” delivery of large files.

The founder of CacheFly keenly grasped this fundamental contradiction:Distributing a small 1MB image and distributing a 1GB game installation package are fundamentally different tasks at the physical level.

The former pursues instantaneous response to massive concurrent requests (high QPS), while the latter aims for a single TCP connection to sustain long-term, stable, uninterrupted transmission of massive bytes at maximum throughput (high bandwidth, low jitter, and packet loss resilience).

Thus, from its inception, CacheFly established its specialized focus: to become the premier provider of internetLarge-volume, high-value digital assetsexclusive express delivery network.

Its early client roster—including Adobe, Blizzard, and Unity—consisted entirely of the era's heavyweight creators of digital content.

II. “Counter-Current” Unicast Anycast and Private Protocol Stacks

CacheFly's technology choices, which today may seem unconventional, form the very foundation of its expertise. It has charted a course distinctly different from mainstream CDNs.

1. Maintain unicast Anycast rather than distributed edge

The vast majority of modern CDNs (such as Cloudflare and CloudFront) employ a distributed edge architecture, where users connect to the geographically nearest node.

CacheFly has consistently maintained and optimized itsUnicast AnycastNetwork. Simply put, when users worldwide access the same IP address, the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) directs them to the “logically” optimal (rather than geographically nearest) entry node.

Once the connection is established, the data stream will be routed through CacheFly'sPrivate Core NetworkTransmission continues until delivery from the exit node closest to the user.

• AdvantagesThis model delivers unparalleled stability for large file transfers. Once the connection is established, data flows through a controlled private backbone network, bypassing potential issues like routing fluctuations, congestion, and interference from intermediate devices on public networks. This ensures smooth and predictable download speeds. For a 20-minute game download experience, this is crucial—users care less about initial speed and more about consistent, uninterrupted performance throughout the entire process.

• CostSacrificing some ultra-low latency (first packet arrival time) performance also increases architectural complexity and cost. However, CacheFly believes that for large file distribution, the stability of “average speed” and “completion time” far outweighs the importance of “first packet time.”

2. Deeply Optimized TCP Protocol Stack and Proprietary Transport Protocol

CacheFly has embedded its core competencies deep within the transport layer. It has long employed and optimized a suite ofProprietary TCP protocol stack, and even developed a product called “Zippy”The proprietary acceleration protocol (based on UDP) is designed to fundamentally resolve TCP's bandwidth utilization efficiency issues in high-latency, high-packet-loss network environments (such as transatlantic and transpacific connections).

These optimizations include:

• Aggressive Congestion Control AlgorithmDetect and utilize available bandwidth more quickly.

• Intelligent error recovery mechanismReduce transmission interruptions caused by packet loss and retransmission.

• Persistent Connection OptimizationEnsure that a single connection for large file downloads can maintain high performance over extended periods.

3. Cache Design Focused on “Data Blocks” Rather Than “Objects”

General-purpose CDNs cache each file as an independent “object.” CacheFly, however, aligns more closely with the physical storage characteristics of large files, potentially employing strategies closer to block storage or content-addressable approaches to manage massive datasets.

This makes it suitable forPartial content update(such as a small patch for a 100GB game) andScope RequestIts processing efficiency is exceptionally high, and its support for resume-enabled downloads and segmented downloads sets the industry standard.

III. Business Model and Customer Base: Safeguarding “Asset-Heavy” Operations

CacheFly's business model clearly reflects its positioning.

• PricingSimple and straightforward, typically based on committed bandwidth or traffic volume. It avoids complex billing games involving request counts or function call frequencies, as its core value lies in the quality of the “transmission channel.” Customers pay for this stable, high-speed “digital superhighway.”

• Customer baseHighly vertical.

  1. Gaming IndustryIt's their core business. From patches and DLC to full client global releases, CacheFly is the go-to behind-the-scenes solution for many AAA studios.

  2. Software and Developer ToolsDistribution of massive installation packages such as Adobe Creative Suite, Autodesk software suites, and Unity/Unreal Engine editors.

  3. Digital Media and EntertainmentFilm studios distribute 4K/8K master files and synchronize assets across animation rendering farms.

  4. Scientific Research and Big DataAcademic institutions and meteorological departments distribute large datasets.

• Value Proposition：CacheFly sellsNot “acceleration,” but “certainty.”Its SLA (Service Level Agreement) is not only about availability, but also aboutThroughput GuaranteeCustomers choose it because they cannot afford the catastrophic consequences of a major version update where network fluctuations cause global players' downloads to get stuck at 99.1% or 99.3%.

IV. The Glory and Mists of the Expert's Path

CacheFly stands at a crossroads of technological transformation. Its specialized moat remains deep, yet the evolution of mainstream internet is quietly reshaping the rules of the game.

1. The “Erosion” of the Technological Environment”

• The Popularization of HTTP/3 and QUIC： The mainstream internet is fully embracing UDP-based protocols like HTTP/3 and QUIC. Features such as multiplexing and zero-RTT connections are systematically addressing many inherent limitations of TCP. Tech giants like Cloudflare and Google are pushing QUIC optimizations to their limits. This objectively erodes CacheFly's exclusive advantage in transport layer protocols. Whether its proprietary protocol will transition from “advanced” to “non-standard” in the future remains a critical question.

• The Rise of Edge ComputingModern application architectures tend to push logic to the edge. However, CacheFly's “core-to-edge” unicast Anycast model conflicts with models that run functions at the edge to process requests. It must consider how to integrate its high-quality core transport network with edge computing capabilities, rather than merely serving as a “dumb pipe.”

2. The “Squeeze” of Market Trends”

• “The Power of BundlingGame publishers are increasingly utilizing platforms like Steam and the Epic Games Store, which operate their own distribution networks. Cloud providers such as AWS are also eroding the market for standalone software distribution through low-cost bundling.

• The Torrent of Small File AggregationModern web applications utilize techniques such as code splitting and lazy loading to fragment large applications into numerous small files. This approach is better suited for edge CDNs leveraging HTTP/2/3 multiplexing, rather than CacheFly, which is optimized for single long-lived connections.

3. Potential Future Evolutionary Pathways

When faced with challenges, CacheFly, the specialist, has several possible solutions:

• Path One: Deepen Vertical Integration to Become the Infrastructure of “Digital Heavy Industry”Not only distribution, but also extending upstream to provideGlobal High-Performance Object Storage and Data Synchronization ServiceServe as the “data logistics hub” for global asset libraries of game and film studios, deeply integrated with rendering farms and production toolchains.

• Path Two: Embrace and reshape the edge to deliver “secure edge large file services”Deploy dedicated hardware at edge nodes with large-file caching and preprocessing capabilities, and partner with mainstream edge computing platforms (such as Cloudflare Workers) to provide APIs enabling developers to invoke large-file fragments secured by CacheFly within edge logic. Evolve from a “network” to a “service.”

• Path Three: Technology Openness, Turning Protocol Advantages into Commercial ProductsLeverage its accumulated expertise in long-connection optimization and proprietary protocols by packaging these capabilities into SDKs or transport-layer services. Sell these solutions to other industries with similar requirements—such as IoT bulk data transmission and autonomous driving high-definition map updates—to monetize its technological assets.

Conclusion:

CacheFly is like a precision steam locomotive still running efficiently in the Internet museum.

It represents the pinnacle of infrastructure design in the internet's “download era”—focused on a single physical problem (efficiently moving massive amounts of bits) and solved with extreme precision through complex engineering. In today's era pursuing “intelligence,” “convergence,” and “ecosystems,” it appears so simple, even somewhat outdated.

However, as long as the digital world still requires mobility,Truly heavyThe bits—whether it's the next 200GB open-world game, the raw footage of an 8K panoramic film, or the complete database of the human genome—CacheFly represents the kind ofDeep respect for the fundamental nature of transmission and engineering dedicationAs long as it exists, it will always have value.

It may never become an all-encompassing cloud, but it can be the smoothest deep-water channel carrying the heaviest digital ark.

Its future hinges on whether it can mount the powerful heart of a steam locomotive onto the modern tracks of maglev technology.

Regardless of success or failure, CacheFly has, through two decades of unwavering dedication, left a unique testament to “depth” and “focus” in the history of internet infrastructure development.