Shaw Communications has deployed Verivue’s MDX 9200 Series Media Distribution Switch in order to expand its video-on-demand service for both SD and HD content.

The expansion is for customers in and around Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg.

“The growth and popularity of video-on-demand service, along with the shift to high-definition content, creates a whole new set of challenges for cable operators like Shaw,” said Jim Dolce, CEO of Verivue. “The MDX 9200 provides the performance, scale and reliability Shaw needed to address these changing requirements, while significantly reducing total cost of ownership.”

Modeled after the blade server concept, the MDX integrates servers, storage, networking and applications into a unified platform, Verivue said, and its modular design offers an alternative to sprawling racks of servers, hard disk drives, network adapters, cables and supporting LAN switches cluttering data centers.

The MDX 9000 family includes two models: the high-capacity MDX 9200 and the new MDX 9020, offering mid-range stream capacity. When deployed together in a content delivery network (CDN), the two systems cooperate to push content to the customer, freeing up capacity on the IP backbone and lowering delivery costs.

Shaw’s initial deployment of MDX 9200 systems will soon be expanded to include the smaller, complementary MDX 9020 at the edge, Verivue said.