Akamai Intelligent Platform to Address Challenges of a Hyperconnected World

BOSTON, Oct. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Akamai Edge 2011 Customer Conference -- Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading cloud platform for enabling secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere, today unveiled wide-ranging technology advancements to its Akamai Intelligent Platform™.  Introduced at Akamai Edge 2011, the Company's annual customer conference, Akamai demonstrated new solutions for application acceleration from the enterprise to the cloud, mobile site acceleration and adaptation, security, and the monetization and distribution of rich media – all designed specifically to meet the evolving requirements of doing business in a hyperconnected world.

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The emergence of the hyperconnected world has presented new technology challenges for businesses as they strive to deliver content and applications to customers, partners, suppliers and employees, independent of user device or physical location.  Current estimates identify more than 35 billion connected devices around the world, with projections forecasting there to be a staggering 1 trillion connected devices in just the next two years.(1)  The Akamai Intelligent Platform is designed to mitigate the challenges of operating in a hyperconnected world by providing a single platform over which businesses can engage users across the Web, mobile, cloud, or a mix of public and private network environments.

"Although companies have long been doing business on the Internet, online content and applications have evolved significantly over time, as have user habits and expectations," explained Lydia Leong, research vice president, Gartner.  "We now live in an always-connected, multi-device world, where workers and consumers expect to be able to immediately access rich, interactive experiences, with high levels of performance and quality, as well as the assurance of security.  As site complexity and user expectations continue to increase, organizations will continue to seek out partners that they can trust to simplify the intricacies of successful content and applications delivery, improve the user experience, and allow them to focus on their core competencies."

Offering a unified set of solutions for business innovators looking to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the hyperconnected world, such as reaching new markets, increasing IT agility, and communicating anywhere, the Akamai Intelligent Platform has now evolved to address the following customer needs:

Optimize Application Delivery from the Enterprise to the Cloud

Today's worker needs to access business applications that live in the enterprise, the cloud and in some cases a combination of both.  They expect a seamless experience, independent of how, or where, the application is accessed.  The Akamai Intelligent Platform provides enterprises with new ways to connect to cloud services that best meet their requirements.

Akamai now offers customers the ability to embed cloud optimization services into leading public cloud computing platforms to provide a unified and simple-to-configure offering for users leveraging the cloud.  In addition, Akamai has extended its global platform into corporate data centers as users increasingly reach-out to the cloud when accessing applications on private networks.  Building on relationships with IBM, to accelerate WebSphere applications in the data center across the public Internet, and with Riverbed Technology, to extend Akamai's edge from close proximity to the data center to directly within the enterprise, Akamai is securing and optimizing applications that traverse  both public and private networks.  

Enable Mobile Site Optimization, Adaptation & Performance

Understanding the value of an exceptional Web experience independent of device and in an increasingly mobile world, Akamai has taken several steps to ensure effective acceleration and optimization of sites delivered to a wide variety of mobile devices.  

A suite of mobile site solutions, expected to be available in the first half of 2012, is designed to combine Internet network and protocol optimization with front end optimization (FEO) to provide a comprehensive performance solution for any business with a mobile site.  In addition, through the company's relationship with Ericsson, Akamai is working to extend its platform into mobile networks, further improving the consistency of experience for mobile subscribers where it matters most.

Akamai has also taken steps to expand its capabilities to help customers build mobile sites more quickly.  Akamai has completed the integration of its fully managed mobile adaptation solution and is announcing a new partnership with Netbiscuits for developers and sites that require additional levels of self service and control.  The combination of all of these technologies is designed to help enable the best mobile experience for users while reducing the cost and complexity needed to optimize for the evolving landscape of mobile device types and browsers.

Support the Explosive Demand for Multi-Device Consumption

Emerging technology and consumer demands have been accelerating the evolution of the media industry, and technology continues to disrupt traditional media models and value chains.  Consumers are demanding more flexible access to content across a variety of mobile and connected devices, and at the highest quality possible.  As a result, Akamai has seen the adoption of its flagship solution, the Akamai HD Network, more than double by media businesses over the last year.

As the demand for rich media continues to evolve, Akamai is announcing the availability of a modular TV Everywhere solution for rapidly enabling entitlement-based content models to further its reach into the hyperconnected world.  TV Everywhere allows consumers to access their favorite subscription television programming across multiple devices.  Akamai's TV Everywhere solution is comprised of high quality delivery, content security, sophisticated analytics, and identity services.  Akamai's cloud-based approach offers a simple, standardized integration across platforms and devices to securely connect programmer content libraries with operator subscribers, as well as technology to ensure consumers have a consistent and continuous viewing experience that flows seamlessly from device to device.  

Akamai is also announcing the general availability of its integrated Media Analytics product suite, allowing content providers to synchronize viewers' Quality of Experience with audience engagement statistics for the first time.  This extends their visibility into how content, quality and packaging decisions impact their audience and delivers insights for the best ways to create and deliver "sticky" content.  

"Users no longer 'go online' in the hyperconnected world, they are always online, and businesses of all types need effective solutions to reach these users with content and applications across any experience, any device, anywhere," said Tom Leighton, chief scientist of Akamai.  "The Akamai Intelligent Platform offers a powerful, unified solution to how enterprises can architect their businesses for the future."

Highlights at Akamai Edge 2011

Attendees at this week's Akamai Edge 2011 will be the first to preview many of the updates and advancements to the Akamai Intelligent Platform.  Akamai will present live demonstrations and performance results derived from the Riverbed and Ericsson relationships, showcase advances in its mobile, FEO and media capabilities, and exhibit a refreshed customer portal design planned for release in 2012.

About Akamai

Akamai® is the leading cloud-based platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences to any device, anywhere.  At the core of the Company's solutions is the Akamai Intelligent Platform™ providing extensive reach, coupled with unmatched reliability, security, visibility and expertise.  With solutions for connecting an increasingly mobile world, supporting 24/7 consumer demand for commerce and entertainment, and enabling enterprises to securely leverage the cloud, Akamai empowers its customers to transform and reinvent their online businesses.  To learn more about how Akamai is accelerating the pace of innovation in a hyperconnected world, please visit www.akamai.com and follow @Akamai on Twitter.

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act

This release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, early termination of third-party partnership or failure of those partnership to generate the expected benefits, delays in the introduction of planned new service offerings or a determination not to proceed with such offerings, failure of Akamai services to operate as expected or to address intended market needs, a failure of Akamai's network infrastructure, and other factors that are discussed in Akamai's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

(1) Cisco

SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.