Designed for cloud computing, security, and content delivery, Akamai Connected Cloud aims to get applications and data closer to the customers of enterprises.
The platform will be backed by Akamai‘s network of 4,100 locations across 134 countries, with three further core and distributed computing sites planned to be deployed by the end of Q3 2023, taking this total to 14 sites.
These sites will contain all of the cloud computing services acquired from Linode, the developer-friendly cloud infrastructure provider Akamai acquired in 2022, and will allow developers and companies to build, run, and secure workloads closer to wherever businesses and users connect online.
From here, Akamai plans to roll 10 additional core sites out globally throughout the year.
“We’re taking a fundamentally different approach to cloud computing — building on 25 years of experience scaling and securing the internet for the biggest companies in the world,” said Tom Leighton, co-founder and CEO of Akamai.
“Akamai is building the cloud the next decade needs. Akamai’s leadership position at the edge enables us to scale everything we touch: we scale content, putting digital experiences closer to users than anyone. We scale cybersecurity, keeping threats farther away from business and people.
“Our customers know us and trust us for this scale. Now we plan to scale cloud computing, to provide customers with better performance at a lower cost.”
Adam Karon, chief operating officer and general manager of Akamai’s Cloud Technology Group — who will head up the platform — added: “Cloud is a stepping stone to solving larger business challenges. Business leaders are looking to continue the momentum of digital transformation and stretch the boundaries of what’s possible for their organisations in an increasingly digital world.
“Our distributed scale is designed to deliver highly performant cloud computing everywhere our customers’ business connects online, empowering them with the speed, flexibility, performance, and connectivity they need to grow without compromise, innovate without friction, and delight customers without fail.”
Dave McCarthy, research vice-president at IDC, commented on the release: “The cloud’s next phase requires a shift in how developers and enterprises think about getting applications and data closer to their customers.
“It redefines how the industry looks at things like performance, scale, cost, and security, as workloads are no longer built for one place but are delivered across a wide spectrum of compute and geography.
“Akamai’s innovative rethinking of how this gets done — and how it is architecting Akamai Connected Cloud — puts it in a unique position to usher in an exciting new era for technology and to help enterprises build, deploy, and secure distributed applications.”
G&L: a key customer in media
Media, software-as-a-service (SaaS), retail and government are examples of industries where lower latency between compute, storage, database, and other services are in high demand today, as customers demand faster service than ever.
One media company looking to leverage the core and distributed capabilities of the new Akamai platform is G&L, a systems integrator that collaborates with broadcasters and streaming services nationally.
“Akamai Connected Cloud and the new distributed locations to be launched globally align perfectly with what we love most about Akamai: providing the ultimate distributed edge and cloud platform,” said G&L CEO, Alexander Leschinsky.
“G&L is using Akamai to extend our custom multi-cloud media stack with ease, reliability, and cost efficiency, helping us to provide unbeatable value to our clients.”
More information on the new Akamai Connected Cloud platform can be found here.
Related:
Akamai CTO discusses the impact of AI on Internet performance — James Kretchmar, CTO of Akamai, spoke to Information Age about how AI and automation impact Internet performance.
How the edge and the cloud tackle latency, security and bandwidth issues — Discussing how edge computing is complementing the cloud to tackle pitfalls around latency, security and bandwidth.
