1. A content delivery network (CDN) comprising: a single autonomous CDN partitioned into multiple virtual CDNs, said multiple virtual CDNs being organized into a CDN hierarchy, each virtual CDN of said multiple virtual CDNs being allocated separate physical resources, wherein, within said CDN hierarchy, at least one parent virtual CDN has at least one child virtual CDN, and wherein said at least one parent virtual CDN to grants at least one privilege to said at least one child virtual CDN.