Neighbor invited me over for BBQ last weekend. Works at Netflix as senior infrastructure engineer. 10+ years there.
Few beers in, conversation turned to work.
"We're testing something interesting. Decentralized storage for content delivery. Your world, right?"
"Wait, Netflix is looking at decentralized storage?"
"Yeah. Our AWS costs are... problematic. Can't share exact numbers but let's say it's nine figures annually just for storage."
NINE FIGURES = $100M+ ANNUALLY.
"Why now?"
"AWS raised prices three times in 18 months. Our CFO basically said find alternatives or we're cutting engineering budget. That got everyone's attention fast."
"We started evaluating options 6 months ago. Looked at everyone. Google Cloud, Azure, smaller providers. All have same problem - they're centralized. One contract negotiation away from another price increase."
"Then someone on infrastructure team discovered this Walrus thing."
THIS WALRUS THING = @walrusprotocol
"What made it interesting to Netflix specifically?"
"Content delivery is perfect use case for erasure coding. We need redundancy but don't need full replication everywhere. Walrus architecture is literally designed for exactly what we do."
"We store massive video files. Distribute globally. Need high availability. Traditional cloud replication is expensive overkill. Erasure coding gives same reliability at fraction of cost."
"How far along is testing?"
"Four month pilot. Started November. Testing with non-critical catalog content first. Performance has been solid. Cost savings matching projections - 70-80% reduction."
70-80% of NINE FIGURES is $70-80M+ annual savings potential.
"What happens if pilot succeeds?"
"Gradual migration. Can't flip switch overnight with our scale. But if everything works, we'd move significant percentage of catalog storage to $WAL infrastructure over 2-3 years."
"Other streaming platforms watching?"
"Can't speak for them. But I know for fact our AWS rep is nervous. They've offered us 'special pricing' three times since we started Walrus testing. That tells you everything about how seriously they take the threat."
AWS PANICKING about Netflix testing Walrus.
Neighbor wouldn't share more. NDA and all that. But facts are clear:
Netflix testing @Walrus 🦭/acc for content storage
Nine figure annual AWS costs driving search for alternatives
70-80% cost reduction in testing
Potential multi-year migration if successful
AWS offering desperate discounts to prevent it
If Netflix migrates meaningful percentage of content to Walrus, every streaming platform will evaluate it.
Entertainment industry storage costs are MASSIVE. Video files are huge. Global distribution required. Perfect use case for decentralized erasure coding.
Neighbor's final comment: "Don't tweet this or anything. I could get fired. But between us? This technology is legit. It's going to change content delivery infrastructure."
When senior Netflix engineers tell you technology "is going to change content delivery infrastructure" over beers - that's insider signal.
Market still treating $WAL like web3 storage solution. Meanwhile Netflix testing it for mainstream content delivery at scale.
Gap between crypto market perception and enterprise evaluation won't last forever.
Not financial advice but when Netflix tests your infrastructure to replace nine-figure AWS bills that's validation money can't buy.
