Reinventing Cloud Computing: Akamai Technologies’ Vision for the Next Decade

Key Takeaways:

• Akamai Technologies inaugurates three new cloud computing sites, bringing the company’s vision for a transformative cloud design to life.
• The new sites are a significant stride in Akamai’s plan to integrate core cloud services on top of its existing distributed network footprint.
• Akamai takes a unique approach to cloud computing, emphasizing decentralization and putting applications and data closer to the customer.
• The company’s COO, Adam Karon, expresses the importance of distributed workloads and infrastructure for meeting the demands of modern applications.
• Akamai’s new sites are strategically located in key data center hubs worldwide, opening new avenues for cloud computing for larger commercial clients.
• New premium instances and doubled object storage capacity mark the company’s enhanced offerings.
• The company announces plans for a new global load balancer, marking the first of many integrated services following Akamai’s acquisition of Linode.

About Akamai Technologies

Akamai Technologies is a global company powering and securing life online. It is the trusted choice for many leading companies worldwide to build, deliver, and secure their digital experiences. Its extensive distributed edge and cloud platform, Akamai Connected Cloud, brings apps and experiences closer to users and keeps threats farther away. Akamai is at the forefront of cloud computing, security, and content delivery solutions.

A New Approach to Cloud Computing

Akamai’s innovative approach to cloud computing challenges the centralized architecture that has dominated the industry for years. “Distributed workloads require distributed infrastructure,” explains Adam Karon, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager, Cloud Technology Group, Akamai Technologies. This revolutionary shift aims to meet the needs of modern applications demanding higher performance, lower latency, and true global scalability.

Global Expansion with New Sites

Akamai’s new cloud computing sites located in Paris, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, with further expansion planned in Seattle and Chennai, mark a significant milestone in their vision for the future of cloud computing. These strategic locations position Akamai to deliver higher performance, scalable cloud resources on a global scale.

Each site offers unique benefits. The Washington, D.C. site is set in the heart of the data center hub of the world. Chicago gives access to the world’s fifth top data center market, providing an attractive replication option for latency-sensitive, multicloud workloads. Seattle opens the door to a growing developer and startup community. Paris enables Akamai to help EU companies address data sovereignty challenges, while Chennai promises access to one of India’s largest IT hubs.

Enhanced Cloud Services

Akamai announced new premium instances to provide consistent performance, predictable resource and budget allocation, and simpler SKU management for larger commercial workloads. This new service complements Akamai’s existing shared and dedicated offerings.

The company also expanded the capacity of its object storage product to one petabyte and one billion objects per bucket, enabling businesses to access higher data volumes for scalable, performant, and low-latency cloud-native applications and analytics solutions.

A Vision for a Connected Cloud

Akamai is set to launch the Akamai Global Load Balancer, the first integrated service following its acquisition of Linode. This new global load balancing capability ensures no single point of failure, routing traffic requests to the optimal data center to minimize latency. It bridges existing functionality of Linode NodeBalancers with Akamai Global Traffic Manager and Application Load Balancer services, allowing customers to choose between local and global load balancing across Akamai’s network and rapidly expanding sites.

The introduction of these new sites and enhanced capabilities forms an integral part of Akamai Connected Cloud. Announced in February, this ambitious project is the manifestation of Akamai’s 25 years of experience in scaling and securing the internet for the biggest companies in the world. “We have a unique advantage of seeing the cloud from a different perspective than most,” says Adam Karon. “Our edge-in vision solves many of the scale and portability challenges they face with the current centralized cloud options available to them.”

With its bold vision and innovative services, Akamai Technologies is set to chart the course for the next decade of cloud computing.