Cerberus exists to make live IP video boring in a good way. Our vision is to democratize the toolsets available to the broadcast industry so that anyone from fully qualified engineers all the way down to operators can access the same toolsets without having to go deep dive on cloud services and cloud platforms.
The cost dynamics of moving 24/7 video mean that it's on 24/7, whether someone's watching it or consuming it or not. A lot of the smaller cloud providers cannot offer the scale that we require and the throughput metrics that we need for this type of business.
We could only achieve those through the hyperscalers, but then the downside to that is the price point. Leveraging Akamai Cloud gives us the scalability and at a price point that we need to compete with the hyperscalers. They have been consistently twice as fast as other cloud providers, and the capacity of throughput that they offer allows us to go after the that we want to go after at the scale that we need to achieve.
As a global operation, we're really looking to deploy our resources as close to our customer base as possible, and the spread that Akamai has meant that we could achieve that. It allows customers to deploy the resources that they want, when they need them, and where they need them.
Leveraging Akamai's dedicated instances gives us more performance, more reliability, and a clearer cost model. Akamai's cloud infrastructure allows us to deploy without any changes. It lowers our operational requirements. We can be up and running in any region of Akamai in minutes, opposed to days or weeks.
Biggest benefit of working with Akamai Technologies is it's been easy. We're able to unlock anything
that we've ever asked for. Akamai feels like a small family for such a global brand. Partnering with Akamai Technologies is the right thing for us because we can offer our customers the scale
of the hyperscalers at a price point that makes sense.
Redefining the possible in global live IP video
Cerberus Tech is a global leader in live IP video, empowering broadcasters, streamers, and producers to deliver high-quality content to any corner of the globe. As the world shifted toward “always-on,” low-latency consumption, the company required infrastructure that could scale at hyperscale speeds without a hyperscale price tag. By integrating Akamai into its multicloud strategy, Cerberus expanded its footprint while simultaneously overturning the traditional cost models of live delivery and accelerating its deployment speed.
Democratizing broadcast-grade video
Founded over a decade ago, Cerberus Tech set out with a clear mission: strip the complexity out of live video. Its vision was to democratize the industry by abstracting away cloud friction, allowing anyone — from seasoned engineers to local operators — to deploy professional-grade IP video without specialized cloud expertise.
“We move live video from anywhere on earth to anywhere it needs to go, using the internet as the backbone,” said Chris Clarke, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Cerberus. To promote resilience, Cerberus designed its Livelink platform to be cloud-agnostic from day one. With built-in failover logic and dynamic routing across multiple providers, the platform ensures the feed remains live even if a specific provider or region experiences an outage.
Navigating the limits of cloud economics
As Cerberus grew, it encountered the rigid financial realities of the traditional cloud market. While hyperscalers offered massive throughput, their high egress fees made 24/7 live video commercially difficult to sustain. Conversely, lower-cost providers often lacked the performance and global reach required for high-stakes broadcasting.
“We were continually challenged to make the technical cost model fit the commercial model,” Clarke explained. Cerberus was forced into a lose-lose choice: launch smaller, fragmented environments to dodge egress fees, or sacrifice margins to run large-scale workloads on hyperscalers.
CTO Brad Carter underscored the pressure: “For live IP video, cost, speed, and throughput are everything. We could get the throughput from hyperscalers, but the price point was a nonstarter for a 24/7 business.”
Scaling global growth with Akamai
Global expansion demanded a more flexible model. To slash latency and maximize reliability — especially in high-growth markets like Asia-Pacific and Australia — Cerberus needed to deploy resources at the edge, closer to the end user.
Akamai’s distributed cloud footprint was the game changer. “Akamai’s global coverage meant we could deploy closer to our customers without changing our architecture,” said Carter. “We could set up in new regions in minutes instead of days or weeks.”
Reliability also required dedicated resources. In live broadcasting, shared infrastructure can lead to unpredictable performance. By leveraging Akamai CPU, Cerberus secured dedicated instances with reserved capacity. This ensures that when a customer initiates a launch, the performance is instant and consistent — optimized for the exacting demands of 24/7 linear broadcasting.
Hyperscaler performance without hyperscaler lock-in
The results were immediate. During testing, Akamai’s deployment speeds were twice as fast as other providers, while throughput matched the hyperscalers at a fraction of the cost.
“Akamai gives us the best of both worlds,” said Clarke. “We get the scale and performance we need without being tied to a cost model that undermines our commercial goals.”
The partnership extended beyond the technology itself. Akamai’s engineering teams were deeply involved in the rollout, enabling Cerberus to integrate the new infrastructure faster than any previous provider. “That speed makes a massive difference to our business,” Carter added.
Unlocking new distribution models and markets
With Akamai, Cerberus is rethinking what is commercially viable for live video. The combination of scale and cost efficiency has made “satellite replacement” — a move long considered cost-prohibitive — a reality.
“Akamai’s cost model and scale turn old assumptions on their head,” explained Clarke. Looking forward, Cerberus plans to migrate the majority of its live services and internal operations to Akamai, which will serve as the core infrastructure for both customer and internal workloads.
“Akamai gives us the scale of the hyperscalers at a price point that actually makes sense — and that’s key to competing and winning in live IP video,” said Carter.
Clarke concluded: “With Akamai, we can open new territories, explore new distribution models, and grow much faster.”
About Cerberus Tech
Cerberus Tech is a leader in live IP video distribution, simplifying broadcast workflows with innovative cloud native provisioning, orchestration, and automation, enhanced with best-in-class technology integrations. Dedicated to a broadcast-first approach, Cerberus Tech enables sports broadcasters, production companies, and streaming services to transition seamlessly to IP. Whether implemented as a self-serve or managed service, the company’s on-demand Livelink platform allows for flexible management, processing, and distribution of high-quality content across multiple cloud environments. Backed by world-class customer support, these reliable, scalable video distribution services empower customers to address the evolving demands of the modern media business.
About Akamai
Akamai is the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online. Our market-leading security solutions, superior threat intelligence, and global operations team provide defense in depth to safeguard enterprise data and applications everywhere. Akamai’s full-stack cloud computing solutions deliver performance and affordability on the world’s most distributed platform. Global enterprises trust Akamai to provide the industry-leading reliability, scale, and expertise they need to grow their business with confidence. Learn more at akamai.com and akamai.com/blog, or follow Akamai Technologies on X and LinkedIn.
