Akamai Technologies: Uninterrupted & Unhindered Content Delivery

At the back-end of a Tim Berners-Lee conference was Thomson Leighton, the then professor at MIT pondering over a question posed by the founder of World Wide Web him self, ‘How to reduce Internet traffic?.’ The visionary challenge expressed in 1995 was realized in 1998 by Tom Leighton with the inception of Akamai Technologies. Cut forth 21 years and the organization has turned into a successful Content Delivery Network company with over 175,000 servers in over 100 countries. The innovativeness masterminded in the hallowed hallways of MIT which started with optimizing internet traffic has not ceased yet and the company has emulated and superseded CDN with much advanced solutions and superior products calibrated for the 21st century.

The Internet revolution changed the dynamics of many verticals, of which content delivery and communication were markedly some of them. With the exponential proliferation of internet traffic and demand for easy-to-access entertainment, the need for a workload manager without slowing down on speed of content delivery was paramount. Stepped up Tom Leighton and Danny Lewin, Co-founder, and developed a network that could ‘intelligently route and replicate content over a large network of distributed servers’. The first generation CDNs developed by Akamai focused on satiating the high demand for audio and video streaming, accelerating websites and support growing volumes of content. While the second generation targeted cloud computing with added focus on security of content. Akamai over two decades has moved from one technology to another, all the while revolving around the core CDN back drop.

In the competitive business environment that we live in, the risks of outages are mercilessly high. With nodes and servers distributed all over the world, the firm watches over continuity issues of the clients. It possesses products that consistently looks after a businesses’ internet personality and helps in running the website smoothly. Akamai assists the clients in accelerating revenue, conduct business globally on any device and provide instant, reliable and secure access to websites and applications. While a client’s website is a huge part of his business, it isn’t solely centered upon the web identity though. Akamai along with its continual effort in knitting continuous web activity, also puts in considerable resources behind ensuring high quality media reach its intended targets with reduced downtime and latency. In this age of consumerism, people expect seamless and fast content delivery, be it the latest Kardashian snap or to beat the next FIFA opponent, the instantaneous that people have come to enjoy today needs better infrastructure. Akamai delvers it effortlessly at their door step.

Among other products the Cloud security and networking feature, helps in safeguarding clients data from online theft plus.

It leverages website protection solutions like Kona Site Defender – protects against web attack such as SQL injection, XSS & RFI, Site shield – ensures web traffic goes through Akamai Intelligence platform, the first line of defense and also complements Kona DDOS defender. It also provides clients with infrastructure protection with their Flow-based monitoring system and Prolexic solutions. Akamai also excels in boosting enterprise productivity by accelerating in-branch applications, maintaining enterprise security and compliance, while successfully bringing the internet and public clouds into the enterprise network.

Another aspect of Akamai Technologies is that of Network Operator Solutions, where it optimizes traffic, enables new revenue streams and control costs. With subscribers and providers, it operates on a cost-efficient network, capitalizing on the traffic and reduces the complexity of CDN. The Operator CDN solutions incepted were Aura Licensed CDN – Increase revenue opportunities through retail CDN services, AnswerX – that increases network performance, enable new services and reduce infrastructure costs. Also Akamai deploys self-service solutions and offers 24/7 support, maintenance, monitoring and management and aids in implementation of security assistance.

It should be mentioned that the firm was thrown into the limelight by the successful delivery of March Madness for ESPN in 1999 and subsequently following it up with the unhindered streaming of the Star Wars trailer for Entertainment Tonight in the same month. This explosive launch of Akamai attracted instant global recognition, and claimed Yahoo! as one of its clients. Akamai has worked in varied industries like Automotive, Business services, Healthcare & life science, Manufacturing, Financial services and flourished like a fish that takes to the water, a cakewalk. An example being that of Adobe TV, where Akamai helped in streamlining of end-to-end media delivery management and distribution workflow and allowed Adobe to publish to multiple channels. It resulted in more than 21 million views in 2 months and increase in browser to buyer conversion rate. And also evidenced by the award it has been rewarded with in the fields of technology solutions, customer care, culture, environmental stewardship and commitment to innovation etc. Akamai has won 2015 Network Intelligence Award, Confirmit ACE Award 2013, Readers’ Choice Award 2011, Best Companies to Work for in India 2012 and many more throughout its 19-year history.

It should be mentioned that the firm was thrown into the limelight by the successful delivery of March Madness for ESPN in 1999 and subsequently following it up with the unhindered streaming of the Star Wars trailer for Entertainment Tonight in the same month. This explosive launch of Akamai attracted instant global recognition, and claimed Yahoo! as one of its clients. Akamai has worked in varied industries like Automotive, Business services, Healthcare & life science, Manufacturing, Financial services and flourished like a fish that takes to the water, a cakewalk. An example being that of Adobe TV, where Akamai helped in streamlining of end-to-end media delivery management and distribution workflow and allowed Adobe to publish to multiple channels. It resulted in more than 21 million views in 2 months and increase in browser to buyer conversion rate. And also evidenced by the award it has been rewarded with in the fields of technology solutions, customer care, culture, environmental stewardship and commitment to innovation etc. Akamai has won 2015 Network Intelligence Award, Confirmit ACE Award 2013, Readers’ Choice Award 2011, Best Companies to Work for in India 2012 and many more throughout its 19-year history.