Akamai Technologies

Akamai Technologies
Akamai Technologies, Inc.
Type

Public

Traded as

[1]
NASDAQ:AKAM
NASDAQ-100 Component
S&P 500 Component

Industry

Internet

Founded

1998

Founder(s)

Tom Leighton
Daniel M. Lewin

Headquarters

Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

Key people

George H. Conrades
(Chairman)
Tom Leighton
[2]
(Co-founder, Chief Scientist, CEO)
[3]

Revenue

US$ 1.16billion (2011)

Operating income

US$ 290.65million (2011)

Net income

US$ 200.90million (2011)

[3]

[3]

Employees

2380 (December 2011)

Website

Akamai.com

Akamai
Technologies,
Inc.
(pron.:
/kma/) (NASDAQ:AKAM [1]) is an
Internet
content
delivery
network
headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
in the United States. Akamai's network[5] is
one
of
the
world's
largest
distributed-computing
platforms.
The
company was founded in 1998 by Daniel M.
Lewin (then a graduate student at MIT) and
MIT Applied Mathematics professor Tom
Leighton. Lewin was killed aboard
American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed
in the September 11 attacks of 2001.
Leighton still serves as Akamai's Chief
Scientist. Akamai is a Hawaiian word
meaning smart or intelligent with
connotations of insightful, wise or skillful.

[3]

[4]

Akamai content delivery to a user

Akamai Technologies

History
Leighton has served as head of the
Algorithms Group at MIT's Laboratory for
Computer Science since its inception in
1996. Believing that a solution to Web
congestion could be found in applied
mathematics and algorithms, Leighton
solicited the help of MIT graduate student
Danny Lewin and others. Together, they
developed the mathematical algorithms
necessary to handle the dynamic routing of
content and to work towards this aim.
In late 1998 and early 1999, a group of
Internet business professionals joined the
founding team. Most notably, Paul Sagan, a
former president of Time Inc. New Media
who founded the Road Runner cable modem
service and who also helped launch NY1
News, became chief operating officer and
eventually
president
of
Akamai
Technologies. George Conrades, former
chairman and chief executive officer of
Akamai headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts
BBN Corp. and senior vice president of U.S.
Operations for IBM, joined as chief executive officer a few months later. The company launched commercial service
in April 1999.
Between 2003 and 2009, Akamais "revenue grew at a compounded annual growth rate of more than 32%, with a
26% operating margin in 2009. Akamai also broadened its worldwide customer base, with 28% of 2009 revenue
coming from outside the United States, up from 23% two years earlier." Part of this growth came from Akamais
core content delivery service.[6]

Content delivery to a user

Akamai provides a service to companies that have content on the Internet (Akamai's customers), to more efficiently
deliver this content to users browsing the Web and downloading content.[5] Akamai does this by transparently
mirroring contentsometimes all site content including HTML, CSS, and software downloads, and sometimes just
media objects such as audio, graphics, animation, and videofrom customer servers. Though the domain name (but
not subdomain) is the same, the IP address points to an Akamai server or another user's machine that Akamai is
using as a server rather than the customer's server. The Akamai server is automatically picked depending on the type
of content and the user's network location.
The benefit is that users can receive content from whichever Akamai server or user is close to them or has a good
connection, leading to faster download times and less vulnerability to network congestion or outages. Furthermore,
for streaming media, Akamai claims to provide better scalability by delivering the content over the last-mile from
servers close to end users, avoiding the middle-mile bottleneck of the Internet.[7]
In addition to content caching, Akamai provides services which accelerate dynamic and personalized content,
J2EE-compliant applications, and streaming media to the extent that such services frame a localized perspective.

Akamai Technologies

Primary domains
Akamai Technologies owns about 60 other domains, but the primary domains it uses are:
Corporate
akamai.com Akamai's corporate domain
Akamai's content delivery networks and domains

akamai.net
akamaiedge.net
akamaihd.net
edgesuite.net
edgekey.net
srip.net[8][9]

Akamai's DNS servers

akamaitech.net
akadns.net
akam.net

Peer-to-peer networking
In addition to using Akamai's own servers, Akamai delivers content from other end-users' computers, in a form of
peer-to-peer networking[10][11] When users request a download of some large files served by this system, they are
prompted to download and install "Akamai NetSession Interface, a download manager used to reduce download time
and increase quality."[12] However, this software is not just a download manager, delivering content from the Internet
to the user's computer, but it is also a peer-to-peer server, delivering content cached on the user's computer to other
users' computers. The user agreement describes this vaguely as
"You agree that the Software may send and receive commands and data related to participating publishers
digital information ("Published Content") to and from the Akamai network and other Akamai NetSession
Interfaces to facilitate the downloading of Published Content."
The Akamai web site describes this system as follows:
"All clients are always on available to send data when your system is idle. This means there is massive
redundancy of peer caches on the network and with such redundancy in resources, the network can be selective
about which idle resources to pull from."[11]

The Akamai Network: Edge Platform

The Akamai Network[5] is a large distributed computing platform that operates worldwide. It is a network of more
than 105,000 secure servers equipped with proprietary software and deployed in 78 countries that relies on applied
mathematics and algorithms to help solve congestion and vulnerability problems on the Internet. These servers reside
within approximately 1,900 of the world's networks monitoring the Internet in real time gathering information
about traffic, congestion, and trouble spots. Akamai uses this intelligence to optimize routes and replicate data
dynamically to deliver content and applications more quickly, reliably, and securely.
Akamai's approach[5] is to:
Eliminate long routes whenever possible by replicating and delivering content and applications from servers close
to end users around the world instead of from centralized servers. Akamai calls this delivering from "the edges of the
Internet."

Akamai Technologies
Optimize routes by mapping paths across the Internet to avoid trouble spots, compressing content, and replicating
packets to ensure fast, complete delivery.
Perform computing closer to the user to avoid long Internet latencies (called EdgeComputing).
Akamai's approach requires a comprehensive view of Internet conditions and the tools to control the movement of
any type of content or application. [13]

Customers
On July 21, 1999, at Macworld Expo New York, Apple and Akamai announced a strategic partnership to build
Apple's new media network, QuickTime TV (QTV), based on QuickTime Streaming Server.[14] Both companies
later announced that Apple had made a $12.5million investment in the company the previous month.[15] Apple
continues to use Akamai as their primary content delivery network[16] for a wide range of applications including
software downloads from Apple's Website, QuickTime movie trailers, and the iTunes Store.[17]
In September 1999, Microsoft and Akamai formed a strategic relationship to incorporate Windows Media
technology in Akamai's FreeFlow service, as well as to facilitate the porting of the FreeFlow product to the Windows
platform; this relationship exists to this day.[18]
Arabic news network Al-Jazeera was a customer from March 28, 2003 until April 2, 2003, when Akamai decided to
end the relationship.[19] The network's English-language managing editor claimed this was due to political
pressure.[20]
In June 2008, The NewsMarket teamed with Akamai to accelerate dynamic content and applications to global media
ahead of the Beijing Olympics.[21]
The BBC iPlayer uses Akamai to stream its recorded and live programs, focused through an XML playlist.
The official U.S. government White House website (WhiteHouse.gov [22]) uses Akamai Technologies for hosting
video clips of President Barack Obama's Web addresses on their own in-house servers, after having posted previous
addresses as embedded YouTube clips on the site.[23]
The entire China Central Television website (CCTV.com [24]), including its streaming video, has been hosted on
Akamais edge servers since late 2009.[25][26] Hulu uses Akamai for hosting video.[27] MIT OpenCourseWare
utilizes Akamai's EdgeSuite for its content delivery network.[28]
Trend Micro uses Akamai for their Housecall antivirus application.
Akamai also provided streaming services to ESPN Star (India) during the course of the ICC Cricket World Cup
2011.[29] Other customers include Facebook, Twitter, AMD, Wedubox, Hilton Worldwide Hotels, Amazon.com (for
their dynamic contents) ([30]), Adobe Systems, Netflix, Cineville, Miles Kimball, J. C. Penney, Yahoo![16] Blizzard
Entertainment, QNet Virtual Office and github.
Important Customer Privacy Considerations as listed in Akamai's privacy policy: As Akamai's business develops,
Akamai may also offer services on its own behalf or on behalf of business customers directly to consumers that
could involve the collection, use or disclosure of personally identifiable information unless otherwise directed by our
business customers.

Akamai Technologies

Acquisitions
In March 2005, Akamai signed an agreement to acquire Speedera Networks for 12 million shares of Akamai
common stock, valued at $130million at that time.[31] Both companies also agreed to halt pending lawsuits
involving trade secrets and patent infringement.[32] The acquisition was completed in June 2005.[33]
In November 2006, Akamai acquired Nine Systems Corporation for roughly $164million[34] using "approximately
2.7million shares of their common stock, approximately $4.5million in cash and the assumption of options to
purchase approximately 400,000 shares of their common stock."[35]
On April 12, 2007, Akamai acquired Red Swoosh in exchange for 350,000 shares of Akamai common stock.[36] The
acquisition of Red Swoosh was valued at approximately $15million, net of cash acquired.
In March 2007, Akamai acquired Netli in exchange for 3.2 million shares of Akamai stock.[37] The acquisition of
Netli was valued at approximately $178million.
In late 2008, Akamai acquired Acerno, a performance-based ad network, and launched a new division, Advertising
Decision Solutions.[38]
In June 2010, Akamai acquired mobile services platform company Velocitude to support its mobile devices
efforts.[39]
In 2011, Akamai announced it was acquiring Israeli cloud communications competitor Cotendo for $268 million.[40]
In February 2012, Akamai announced it acquired Blaze Software, which has technology to optimize Web page
rendering.[41]

Notes
[1] http:/ / www. nasdaq. com/ symbol/ akam
[2] http:/ / www. akamai. com/ html/ about/ press/ releases/ 2012/ press_121712_1. html
[3] "2011 Form 10-K, Akamai Technologies, Inc." (http:/ / www. sec. gov/ Archives/ edgar/ data/ 1086222/ 000126643212000010/
akam10k123111. htm). U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. . Retrieved July 23, 2012.
[4] http:/ / www. akamai. com/
[5] Erik Nygren, Ramesh K. Sitaraman, and Jennifer Sun. "The Akamai Network: A Platform for High-Performance Internet Applications, ACM
SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, Vol. 44, No.3, July 2010." (http:/ / www. akamai. com/ dl/ technical_publications/
network_overview_osr. pdf). .
[6] Benjamin Edelman, Thomas Eisenmann, Eric Van Den Steen (June 8, 2010). "Akamai Technologies" (http:/ / cb. hbsp. harvard. edu/ cb/ web/
product_detail. seam?E=51009& R=804158-PDF-ENG& conversationId=112191). . Retrieved April 20, 2011.
[7] "Inside Akamai and the scary future of streaming video, GigaOm." (http:/ / gigaom. com/ video/
inside-akamai-and-the-scary-future-of-streaming-video/ ). August 19, 2011. . Retrieved March 12, 2012.
[8] Young, Jeff; Wolfe, Steven J. (2000-10-18). "Akamai Unveils EdgeSuite, the Next Generation of Intelligent Content Services" (http:/ / www.
akamai. com/ html/ about/ press/ releases/ 2000/ press_101800b. html). Akamai Technologies. . Retrieved 2012-03-31.
[9] What Is edgesuite.net? (http:/ / wiredpen. com/ 2010/ 09/ 01/ what-is-edgesuite-net/ ), WordPress, 2010-10-18, , retrieved 2012-03-31
[10] Ben Homer (January 26, 2010). "Akamai Using P2P for Enhanced Video Delivery" (http:/ / www. onlinevideowatch. com/
akamai-using-p2p-for-enhance-video/ ). Online Video Watch. . Retrieved September 2, 2011.
[11] "Akamai NetSession Interface Design Principles" (http:/ / www. akamai. com/ html/ misc/ akamai_client/ netsession_interface_design.
html). Akamai Technologies. . Retrieved September 2, 2011..
[12] "Basic No-Frills 10 MB Test Download" (http:/ / client. akamai. com/ misc/ demos/ csd-BasicDownload. html). Akamai Technologies. .
Retrieved September 2, 2011..
[13] http:/ / www. akamai. com/ html/ technology/ edgeplatform. html Akamai EdgePlatform
[14] July 21, 1999 Apple and Akamai Create High Quality Network for Internet Streaming (http:/ / www. akamai. com/ html/ about/ press/
releases/ 1999/ press_072199. html). Akamai.com. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
[15] August 18, 1999 Apple and Akamai Reveal Apple Investment to Cement Strategic Agreement (http:/ / www. akamai. com/ html/ about/
press/ releases/ 1999/ press_081899c. html). Akamai.com. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
[16] Customer List (http:/ / www. akamai. com/ html/ customers/ customer_list. html). Akamai.com (September 30, 2003). Retrieved on July 8,
2011.
[17] April 29, 2003 Akamai and Apple Extend Commitment to Deliver Industry Leading Internet Streaming Content and Software Downloads
(http:/ / www. akamai. com/ html/ about/ press/ releases/ 2003/ press_042903. html). Akamai.com. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.

Akamai Technologies
[18] September 27, 1999 Microsoft and Akamai Form Strategic Relationship to Enhance Internet Content Delivery (http:/ / www. akamai. com/
html/ about/ press/ releases/ 1999/ press_092799. html). Akamai.com. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
[19] "Akamai ends Al Jazeera server support" (http:/ / news. com. com/ 1200-1035-995546. html). News.com.com. . Retrieved April 2, 2009.
[20] "Al Jazeera Denied Akamai Services" (http:/ / tech. mit. edu/ V123/ N17/ 17aljazeera. 17n. html). Tech.mit.edu. April 8, 2003. . Retrieved
April 2, 2009.
[21] "The NewsMarket partnered with Akamai to Accelerate Dynamic Content and Applications to Global Media Ahead of Beijing Olympics"
(http:/ / www. akamai. com/ html/ about/ press/ releases/ 2008/ press_060908. html). Akamai Technologies. June 9, 2008. .
[22] http:/ / www. whitehouse. gov/
[23] Kee, Tameka. (March 2, 2009) Corrected: Obama Drops YouTube For Akamai On Whitehouse.gov; White House Denies (http:/ /
paidcontent. org/ article/ 419-obama-drops-youtube-for-akamai-on-whitehouse-gov/ ). paidContent. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
[24] http:/ / www. cctv. com/
[25] www.cctv.com (http:/ / www. robtex. com/ dns/ www. cctv. com. html). Robtex.com. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
[26] http:/ / uptime. netcraft. com/ up/ graph?site=www. cctv. com
[27] About (http:/ / www. hulu. com/ about/ media_faq#technology). Hulu (March 12, 2008). Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
[28] "Free Online Course Materials FAQ: Technology MIT OpenCourseWare:" (http:/ / ocw. mit. edu/ help/ faq-technology/ #t7). . Retrieved
June 14, 2010.
[29] http:/ / teck. in/ espnstar-com-breaks-india-online-cricket-match-streaming-record. html
[30] http:/ / gigaom. com/ cloud/ amazon-updates-cdn-for-dynamic-content/
[31] "Akamai to Acquire Speedera Networks" (http:/ / www. akamai. com/ html/ about/ press/ releases/ 2005/ press_031605. html). Press
Release. Akamai Technologies, Inc.. March 16, 2005. .
[32] "Akamai snaps up rival Speedera" (http:/ / www. news. com/ Akamai-snaps-up-rival-Speedera/ 2100-1038_3-5620140. html). CNET News.
March 16, 2005. .
[33] "Akamai Completes Acquisition of Speedera Networks" (http:/ / www. akamai. com/ html/ about/ press/ releases/ 2005/ press_061305.
html). Press Release. Akamai Technologies, Inc.. June 13, 2005. .
[34] "Akamai to the Nines" (http:/ / www. fool. com/ investing/ high-growth/ 2006/ 11/ 22/ akamai-to-the-nines. aspx). The Motley Fool. .
Retrieved November 30, 2009.
[35] "Form 10-K for Akamai Technologies, Inc." (http:/ / www. akamai. com/ html/ investor/ 10k_2006. htm#107). . Retrieved November 30,
2009.
[36] "Form 10-Q for Akamai Technologies Inc" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20071013215135/ http:/ / biz. yahoo. com/ e/ 070809/
akam10-q. html). Archived from the original (http:/ / biz. yahoo. com/ e/ 070809/ akam10-q. html) on October 13, 2007. . Retrieved
September 18, 2007.
[37] "Akamai closes Netli acquisition" (http:/ / www. abcmoney. co. uk/ news/ 14200739459. htm). . Retrieved November 28, 2011.
[38] "Connect your products and services to a buying audience" (http:/ / www. akamai. com/ html/ solutions/ ads_advertisers. html). Akamai
Technologies, Inc.. April 30, 2009. .
[39] "Akamai Annual Report 2010" (http:/ / www. akamai. com/ dl/ investors/ akamai_annual_report_10. pdf). Akamai Technologies, Inc.. .
[40] Gomer, Gregory (December 22, 2011). "Akamai Confirms Acquisition of Israeli Competitor Cotendo for $268 Million" (http:/ / bostinno.
com/ 2011/ 12/ 22/ akamai-confirms-acquisition-of-israeli-competitor-contendo-for-268-million/ ). BostInno. . Retrieved December 22, 2011.
[41] "Akamai Technologies Acquires Blaze Software Inc." (http:/ / www. cdn-advisor. com/ akamai-technologies-acquires-blaze-software-inc/ ).
CDN-Advisor.com. . Retrieved November 5, 2012.

References
Erik Nygren, Ramesh K. Sitaraman, and Jennifer Sun. The Akamai Network: A Platform for High-Performance
Internet Applications, ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, Vol. 44, No.3, July 2010.

External links
Akamai home page (http://www.akamai.com/)
Traffic Cops Of The Net (BusinessWeek article) (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_39/
b4002094.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_technology)
Akamai: In the Broadband Internet Sweet Spot (article) (http://networking.seekingalpha.com/article/19060)
The Motley Fool's analysis of Akamai (http://www.fool.com/portfolios/rulebreaker/2000/rulebreaker000803.
htm)
The Akamai Story: From Theory to Practice (http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/199/)
Yahoo! Finance "Akamai Technologies, Inc." Company Profile (http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/59/59556.html)

Akamai Technologies
Washington Post profile of the company (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/
A59806-2004Sep29.html)
'Akamai & The CDN Price Wars (http://gigaom.com/2007/08/06/cdn-price-wars/)
Globally Distributed Content Delivery (http://www.akamai.com/dl/technical_publications/
GloballyDistributedContentDelivery.pdf)

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

Akamai Technologies Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=532716708 Contributors: 3omdeh, Aecis, Alejos, Amaury, Andrewman327, Armbrust, Astatine-210, Astor14,
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Joshua.Chien, Joshy3712, Jreindorp, Jvcdude, Kaszeta, Kim Meyrick, KnightRider, Knilt, Krallja, Kwamikagami, Laurasmith76, Lizbradley2011, Lownin, Lukwam, Lwebdan, MIT Trekkie,
MZMcBride, MarcMedia, MarkPDF, Mastercheef, Matthus Wander, Mercury McKinnon, Metropolitan90, Michael Frind, Mild Bill Hiccup, Mills00013, Mithas, Mjbauer95, Mohawkjohn,
MrDolomite, Msikma, Mu Mind, Namenotek, Nightscream, Nurg, Ohconfucius, Okloster, Ottawahitech, Parkq, Perceval, Pganti, Phil websurfer@yahoo.com, PigFlu Oink, Plop, Plr4ever,
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File:Akamaiheadquarters.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Akamaiheadquarters.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: Original
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