The end of idle infrastructure: Why elastic cache is changing CDN economics

Every network operator understands the balancing act between quality and cost. To guarantee flawless delivery during peak moments such as a national sports final, a breaking news story or a major entertainment launch, CDNs are built for the highest possible demand. The problem is that this capacity sits idle most of the year.

Those racks still draw power, occupy data centre space and require maintenance, all while contributing nothing to daily traffic. Over time, that under-utilised infrastructure becomes an invisible cost centre — increasing OPEX, tying up capital and creating an energy footprint that sustainability teams cannot ignore.

Peaks, Pressure and the Cost of Churn

Viewers will tolerate many things, but buffering is not one of them. When traffic surges arrive, there is no second chance to deliver quality. For most operators, that means overbuilding infrastructure or relying on third-party CDNs to manage overflow. Both options protect viewer experience but at a steep cost.

The real issue is not capacity — it is flexibility. Operators need a way to scale up instantly when demand spikes and scale down again once it passes. Without that agility, resources are wasted, costs keep rising, and operations teams remain in a cycle of reactive crisis management.

How Elastic Cache Makes Capacity Planning Smarter

Elastic Cache changes how operators think about capacity. Instead of maintaining constant headroom to cover unpredictable peaks, it allows CDN resources to be deployed dynamically — when and where they are needed, and only for as long as they are needed.

This technology makes it possible to:

• Expand capacity automatically when traffic crosses predefined thresholds
• Plan proactively for scheduled events without permanent overbuild
• Deploy caches across cloud environments — public, private or ISP — without additional hardware investment
• Use existing compute resources more efficiently — Elastic Cache can draw on underused private cloud capacity during off-peak hours, helping operators boost ROI and justify cloud investments
• Maintain consistent Quality of Experience by always keeping content close to viewers

The result is a CDN that scales intelligently with demand, reducing idle infrastructure, aligning spend with actual usage and improving sustainability through lower energy consumption.

Elastic Cache is a key capability within Synamedia’s Fluid EdgeCDN, a platform designed to give network- operators full control of performance and efficiency. By combining adaptive caching with real-time analytics and automation, Fluid EdgeCDN enables operators to run a leaner, smarter network.

It is a smarter way to deliver premium video experiences — ensuring performance when it matters, and efficiency when it does not.

Learn more about Fluid EdgeCDN