Akamai Launches Sustainability Initiative To Help Customers Reduce Web Infrastructure Energy Consumption

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), the leader in powering video, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, today unveiled a new sustainability initiative dedicated to helping customers run more carbon-efficient Web infrastructure and improve their energy consumption.

(Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100225/AKAMAILOGO )

Akamai's sustainability initiative includes a focus on enhancing the carbon efficiency of its global delivery network of over 61,000 servers.  The initiative is designed to help Akamai improve the hardware and code efficiency within its network, and reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption, all while responding to customer demand for carbon measurement and reporting.  The objective of the initiative is to quantify the energy reductions that Akamai realizes in network carbon efficiency and further develop Akamai's focus on becoming more energy efficient.  

"This is a unique opportunity for Akamai to revolutionize sustainability, specifically carbon management and network efficiency, across the global Internet landscape," said Paul Sagan, president and CEO of Akamai.  "For more than a decade, we have been delivering cloud computing optimization solutions that reduce the energy consumption of our customers' Web and data center infrastructure.  We built a massive, shared network of distributed computing power, running on efficient hardware and code, with a higher utilization compared with traditional data center infrastructure, and made it available as a managed service.  Moving forward, and in collaboration with our customers, we plan to use the information we collect to identify and implement additional best practices."

Akamai will report on the progress of its sustainability initiative at www.akamai.com/sustainability. In 2009, Akamai's drive to improve its network carbon efficiency resulted in an 86 million-pound CO2 reduction – a 32 percent reduction from the amount of CO2 used in 2008, which is equivalent to removing 7,400 U.S. autos from the road (source: EPA [2009]; Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2007)

Today, Akamai is helping customers estimate their own environmental carbon footprint related to Akamai services.  Akamai is also designing an application on its customer-facing portal to provide customers with ongoing, monthly visibility of their carbon footprint on the Akamai platform, across 11 geographic regions around the world.  

In addition to network carbon efficiency improvements, Akamai is pursuing reductions in its energy, water, and materials consumption within its business operations, including:

• Environmentally Lower-Impact Corporate Offices: implementing Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED®) standards for its main corporate office renovations, along with other recycling and waste reduction programs.
• Reduced Electronic Waste: reducing the amount of e-waste (generated by items like servers, PCs, phones, keyboards, monitors, etc.) by upgrading systems for reuse, reselling, and recycling end-of-life equipment in partnership with several reputable vendors.
• Lower Power Consumption Corporate Computing Resources: implementing power management for its PC/laptop and server assets, and incorporating Energy Star and Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT®) guidelines and recommendations into procurement of computing equipment.
• Reduced Travel: upgrading videoconferencing equipment to encourage and enhance long-distance collaboration and reduce travel needs.
• More Measurable Carbon Management: developing processes and systems to track, manage and report carbon emissions, including voluntary reporting to the Carbon Disclosure Project.

*For its work on building carbon-efficient IT solutions, Akamai has recently been recognized by

The Uptime Institute (uptimeinstitute.org) a leading independent think tank and research body serving the global data center industry.  Receiving an 'honorable mention,' Akamai will be recognized at this year's annual Green Enterprise IT (GEIT) Awards.  The GEIT Awards showcase organizations that are pioneering energy-efficiency improvements in their IT and data center operations, or that provide technology that can significantly reduce energy consumption. The winners will be presented at the fifth annual Uptime Institute Symposium, May 17-19 in New York, NY.  

The Akamai Difference

Akamai® provides market-leading managed services for powering video, dynamic transactions, and enterprise applications online.  Having pioneered the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai's services have been adopted by the world's most recognized brands across diverse industries.  The alternative to centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai's global network of tens of thousands of distributed servers provides the scale, reliability, insight and performance for businesses to succeed online.  Akamai has transformed the Internet into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, interact, and collaborate.  To experience The Akamai Difference, visit http://www.akamai.com.  

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act

The 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, failure of our efforts to have further network carbon efficiency improvements, failure in our efforts to reduce our energy, water, and materials consumption within our business operations, or a failure of our customer portal to allow customers to view the impact of their own carbon footprint, 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.

SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.