March 16, 2020, CDNetworks, a global leading Content Delivery Network, announces the availability of free trial services for Media Acceleration and Access Acceleration for academic institutions and telecommuting businesses in the regions affected by COVID-19.
As of March 5, 13 countries have shut schools nationwide. Governments, including Japan, Korea, Italy, UK, are now encouraging companies to allow employees to work from home and many enterprise and organizations are ramping up remote working orders.
By the end of February, the company announced free media acceleration services for Korean and Japanese academic institutions affected by the COVID-19 outbreak as in an effort to assist the students in these regions with a consistent and uninterrupted learning experience.
As the confirmed COVID-19 cases increased rapidly in South Korea and Japan, both governments have responded with a host of emergency measures. By the end of February, the Japanese government ordered all schools nationwide to remain closed till April, while the South Korean government strongly recommended all schools suspend classes. Hundreds of South Korean primary schools and kindergartens have done so or postponed the beginning of the new semester. In-person classes are now suspended in many countries and schools are shutting down national wide. According to the New York Times, nearly 300 million children around the world are facing interruptions in their education.
“We are seeing that the current epidemic outbreak is causing changes to how societies are run and how people are conducting their lives. I’m noticing the pressure and anxiety our employees face who are parents of the students affected by these emergency measures. We would like to do our part to help during this challenging time,” said CDNetowrks CEO, Tim Zou.
Since the COVID-19 virus spreads primarily via respiratory droplets and close contact, avoiding mass gatherings is crucial to cutting off its transmission. The temporary closing of schools, companies and factories and such places where crowds gather has proved necessary and effective, though temporarily disruptive to daily life.
In China, where the outbreak first erupted, winter break for schools and universities was extended to almost 2 months, and the majority of companies extended their Lunar New Year holiday. Data show that the spread of the virus has been effectively contained after these measures were put in place.
The WHO has said that the rest of the world could learn from China’s experience in containing the outbreak. Despite the extended holiday period for schools and businesses, education and business operations did not cease. Around 200 million students in China attended live-streamed classes, while remote and mobile work practices have been widely adopted and become popular for hundreds of millions of people during the outbreak.
Extrapolating from the pattern of spread and containment of COVID-19 in China, educational institutions and businesses are likely to remain closed before the outbreak is brought under control. Many sections of society will “move online” to conduct certain parts of their work and home lives. The demand for telecommuting and online learning will likely see a spike in the short term.
Tim Zou, CEO of CDNetworks, said that the large-scale adoption of telecommuting and online education would likely result in high concurrency and network congestion. “CDNetworks can employ our CDN and related technologies to provide network speed boosts, which will effectively improve distant learning and remote working experience online. Academic institutions facing online teaching demands and corporates facing remote accessing challenges are welcome to contact us. We are committed to help fight COVID-19 in an effort to ensure that students have an uninterrupted school year and corporates have uninterrupted business functions.
About CDNetworks
CDNetworks is a leading global Content Delivery Network (CDN) with a fully integrated cloud solution offering unparalleled speed, security, and reliability for the prompt delivery of web and application content. The company offers users a fast and safe web experience – whether serving B2B or B2C customers, mobile employees or remote offices with content optimized for any device, browser, and network.
