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March 13, 2008

Investment

Cisco invest in P2P start-up
GridNetworks, which launched its service in November 2006, has taken a hybrid approach to delivering high-definition movies and TV shows over the Internet.

February 13, 2008

Investment

Cisco to invest in SoonR
Networking solutions specialist Cisco has started pumping up significant amounts of cash into SoonR, a company that provides its subscribers with mobile access to their desktop.

News

Cisco Systems has invested in a peer-to-peer (P2P) Internet TV start-up.

GridNetworks, which launched its service in November 2006, has taken a hybrid approach to delivering high-definition movies and TV shows over the Internet. It uses both peer-to-peer technology, which leverages content distributed on users' computers all over the Internet as well as content delivery technology, which essentially caches and stores content in server farms throughout the Internet so it can be served up more quickly to geographically close clients.

GridNetworks' software client called Gridcast Connector is installed on PCs and, when content is requested, it locates peers best suited to serve the content. It uses content delivery technology to buffer the first 30 seconds or so of a show or movie.

Cisco has been focused on video for the last couple of years. Eventually, the GridNetworks technology could work well with the company's cable set-top boxes from Scientific Atlanta and Linksys home routers. On the infrastructure side, Cisco also offers video-on-demand products. In 2006, it bought Arroyo Video Systems for $92 million. Cisco plans to use the Arroyo technology to deliver Internet video directly to set-top boxes. And this technology could help the company distribute high-definition video more efficiently.

Cisco is the largest Internet infrastructure provider in the world. And it's significant that the company is investing in a company that is developing a peer-to-peer video platform.

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