CDN/Streaming services, like Akamai Stream OS and Limelight, are great. And if you're going to have a ton of traffic, streaming live events and more, they are indispensable. But what if you have a small project? Or you're just looking to experiment?
Chances are, if you have a small need, Akamai will just point you to one of their partners that they basically resell bandwidth to. There are many of these partners and, in my experience, probably the best thing is to just call Akamai and ask they direct you to a partner that fits your needs.
But there's a big difference when you're calling from a big agency and when you're calling as a freelancer with a small client.
I've experienced both and will say that the latter can often be disheartening. But there are alternatives, which is where Influxis comes in. Don't let the 1992 green on black design fool you. Starting as low as 10 bucks a month, they are perfect if you're just looking to get to know flash media server. At the same time, I've also used them for much larger scale projects (30k+ server connects in 5 days) and they performed wonderfully.
When big CDNs are overkill, remember that there are reasonable alternatives. I'm sure there are hundreds of other companies like Influxis and if you've had a good experience with one, definitely let us know.
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