New Akamai Ad Integration Services Bring Higher Quality and Simplicity to Online Video Advertising

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --  Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere, today announced availability of Ad Integration Services. The newest offering in Akamai's cloud-based Sola Vision suite of workflow, security, and connectivity solutions, Ad Integration Services is designed to simplify the insertion of individually-targeted advertising video content into video streams without the potential quality degradation inherent in a client-based approach. Ad Integration Services' in-network ad insertion approach is architected for high scalability to meet the demands of the largest online audiences.

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Sola Vision's Ad Integration Services dynamically inserts targeted ads from multiple ad decisioning/ad network platforms into linear and on-demand video streams for delivery to any Internet-connected device via Akamai's Sola Sphere media delivery network. Ad Integration Services leverages mDialog's Smart Stream Platform™ technology and open standards-based architecture to allow online content providers to maintain existing video infrastructures and workflows.

By shifting the complexities of online video advertising insertion from the player to the cloud, Ad Integration Services can simplify or remove many of the functions and third-party integrations that are required with a client-based ad insertion approach. This approach is designed to eliminate the risk of quality problems due to last-mile bandwidth contention between ad and video content during the critical transition from content to ad playback. The player/client for this new solution uses a lightweight SDK to ensure accurate Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) compliant measurement beaconing. This easily integrated SDK also supports interactive video ads and ad-skipping prevention in order to deliver a seamless TV-quality viewing experience across devices.

"Targeted video advertising has been the holy grail of the online media industry since online video began," said Greg Ireland, Research Manager, Multiscreen Video, for IDC. "A network-based approach to ad insertion has the potential to address some of the key challenges that have stood in the way. Specifically, the ability to scale to meet broadcast-size audiences and using ad content from a variety of sources in a simple, device-agnostic way."

"Akamai's Sola Ad Integration Services mark a tremendous leap forward in helping content owners and advertisers alike realize the full potential and value of online video advertising," said Ahmet Ozalp, vice president, products, for Akamai's media division. "The thriving ecosystem that has continued to evolve around online video advertising has become increasingly challenging to navigate. Akamai believes that our Sola Vision's Ad Integration Services are making it easier than ever for all parties to take advantage of their technologies and services of choice in a way that is simple to deploy and unobtrusive to the consumer."

Sola Vision, the cloud-based portfolio of online video services within Akamai's Sola Media Solutions, is a comprehensive set of integrated, modular services designed to offer customers a powerful way to simplify and streamline the challenges of online media workflow, protection, and connectivity. Supported by the Akamai Intelligent Platform, Sola Media Solutions enable the economic online distribution of content to the broadest possible array of devices, delivering rich, high-definition quality video to any device at broadcast-size audiences.

Sola Vision Ad Integration Services are compatible with a range of leading encoders, including Cisco Media Processor, Elemental^® Live, and Envivio C4. Further information about Ad Integration Services, as well as all of Akamai's Sola Media Solutions, is available at http://www.akamai.com/html/solutions/sola-solutions.html.

About Akamai
Akamai® is the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on 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. Akamai removes the complexities of connecting the increasingly mobile world, supporting 24/7 consumer demand, and enabling enterprises to securely leverage the cloud. To learn more about how Akamai is accelerating the pace of innovation in a hyperconnected world, please visit www.akamai.com or blogs.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, 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.

SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.