In Netflix’s most recent investor presentation, much of the spotlight was on the new user interface—how vertical formats would be supported and how AI might enhance recommendations. But far less attention was paid to Elisabeth Stone, Netflix’s CTO, who quietly teased the upcoming evolution of Open Connect—Netflix’s proprietary CDN. This next version is designed not only to meet the growing demands of live events, such as the Tyson versus Paul boxing match (Faultline coverage) and the NFL broadcast (Faultline coverage), but also to support the future of cloud gaming. To summarize the issues we observed during those events—particularly the boxing match, and to a lesser extent, the NFL game—Netflix’s infrastructure showed notable limitations during peak viewing times. These issues have…