Akamai Technologies [NASDAQ: AKAM]: Delivering Seamless Web Experiences

The foundation seeds of Akamai technologies [NASDAQ: AKAM] were laid in the late 1990’s as a research project in response to the challenge posed in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by the inventor of World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee. The father of the web foresaw the congestion that was likely to hit upon internet users and also predicted that the hot spots, flash crowds, and the centralized model of distributing content would be facing troubles. He then challenged his colleagues at MIT to invent a fundamentally new and better way to deliver internet content. Though initially started as an academic effort to win the MIT 50K competition, Dr. Tom Leighton, the then MIT Applied Mathematics professor worked on developing algorithms and programs for distributing content on large scale networks that decongested web, which later became the cornerstone for Akamai. Today, Akamai is the creator of the world’s largest distributed computing platform that dynamically routes content and applications across a network of more than 200,000 servers in over 110 countries and more than 1,400 networks around the world.

According to Dr.Leighton, Akamai is working on four major challenges, delivering instant web performance on any device, anywhere; providing quality video over IP at scale; making the internet secure; and creating the next generation of enterprise networks.

Contemporary web applications need to overcome heavy internet traffic for effective and time-bound delivery of content and web pages come with elements that make it difficult to load quickly. Recognizing this need, Akamai’s cloud-based Intelligent Platform was designed to mitigate the challenges of operating in internet world by providing a single solution over which businesses can engage users across the mobile, web, cloud, or a mix of public and private network environments.

As the adoption of web applications also relies on the time the web page takes to load, Akamai’s Ion applies optimizations adaptively based on sophisticated analysis of the web application, as well as real-time conditions specific to the user’s environment such as device, browser, network speed, and presence of third-party services. It is a fully automated solution for situational performance that allows organizations to deliver rapid web application responses, anticipate them in lesser round trips and bytes while enhancing the performance audiences’ experience.

In an instance, Akamai assisted Clear Channel Radio, which has a network that is approximate to 1,200 radio station websites, with more than 500 of these sites streaming live online content. Their challenge was to deliver the same high quality of experience to the audience tuning in online. With Akamai, Clear Channel was able to scale and deliver downloads quickly with better quality and more reliability. “We are now in the league with the largest online brands, and we trust Akamai to help us take our own brand even further,” Brian Parsons, VP of Technology, Clear Channel.

With its ear pinned to the ground, Akamai keeps a complete track of the emerging trends and technologies, giving the end users an ability to get their results in real-time. The company also foresees continued zealous opportunities to broaden the bridge it has created between the internet users and the companies in CDN space. “We like to see our software running on every device—in every branch office, home, enterprise, and ubiquitous throughout the carriers, so that we can optimize and secure the delivery of online content and applications,” concludes Dr.Leighton on a progressive note.