Cotendo, a new CDN backed by VC heavyweights Sequoia Capital and Benchmark Capital, has launched. The technical founders are ex-Commtouch; the VPs of Ops and Marketing are ex-Limelight. Cotendo is positioning itself as a software company (rather than an infrastructure company, per the market shift I blogged about a few months ago), but it’s not a software pure-play — it’s got the usual megaPOP-model deployment. However, they’re positioning themselves more as a fourth-generation approach.

Three things make this launch notable — an ADN service similar to Akamai’s (thus breaking the monopoly Akamai has had since the Netli acquisition), a global load-balancing solution beefed up into an arbitrage service (for multiple delivery resources), and real-time analytics. Plus, all of us CDN-watchers can experience a wry sense of relief to see that Cotendo, unlike practically every other CDN to launch in the last two years, is not focused on video.

Again, I apologize for what is essentially a news blurb, but since I expect it’s going to be a significant subject of client inquiry, I shouldn’t be giving away analysis on my blog. Gartner’s Invest clients are going to ask what this means in the e-commerce/enterprise space, and our mid-market IT buyer clients will want to know what it means for their options. Like usual, I’m happy to take inquiry. Also, more information about this will be going out in a research note.