Using AWS met NDN’s needs for scalable, always-on computing power with predictable costs. By using AWS, NDN can provide its customers with 600 million content plays a month, steadily keeping them in one of the top comScore spots— which in turn increases NDN’s visibility with advertisers. “We have been on top of the comScore list for quite a while; it’s a testament to how fast we’ve taken off,” Orme says. “It’s also helped us to stay privately funded. We’ve been able to be profitable and grow without having to take VC funds.”

The model quickly took off with publishers, enticing news giant Associated Press to partner with NDN in 2010. “We were able to take cost out of the equation,” Orme says. “It’s one of those rare models where everyone gets what they want: content providers can get revenue, and publishers can get premium, brand-safe content that is compelling to their customers. Using AWS has enabled us to build a solid platform that has scaled quickly while becoming a source of profit for our customers.”

Using AWS also allowed NDN to focus on building its business. “We can focus on the problems publishers are struggling with because we don’t have to build out an infrastructure,” Bond says. “Among our competitors, we’re the only one who doesn’t have a destination site. We aggregate and distribute this content in a very quiet way, where it really fits into our customers’ brands.”

The company plans to expand its use of AWS in the coming months. “We are expanding our use of Elastic Beanstalk to handle processing of video transcoding jobs. When news breaks, we must make sure we don’t have a single video stuck in transcoding. We also leverage AWS for notifications with these types of events. Getting the video in and out to publishers quickly is a huge advantage of our platform. We’ve really started to tap into the wide variety of services that AWS offers,” Bond says. “AWS lets us scale and grow—our data footprint has grown massively in just the last 6 months, and with AWS, it’s a snap to manage.”