Akamai Technologies

Infobox Company
name = Akamai Technologies, Inc.

type = Public (NASDAQ|AKAM)
slogan = The trusted choice for online business
foundation = 1998
founder = Tom Leighton Daniel M. Lewin
location = Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
key_people = George H. Conrades, Chairman Paul L. Sagan, President & CEO
num_employees = 1,058 [2006]
industry = Internet hosting services
products = Content delivery
revenue = profit$636.41 Million USD (2007)
net_income = profit$100.97 Million USD (2007)
homepage = [http://www.akamai.com/ www.akamai.com]

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (nasdaq|AKAM) is a company that provides a distributed computing platform for global Internet content and application delivery, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1998 by then-MIT graduate student Daniel Lewin, along with MIT Applied Mathematics professor Tom Leighton and MIT Sloan School of Management students Jonathan Seelig and Preetish Nijhawan. Leighton still serves as Akamai's Chief Scientist, while Lewin was killed aboard American Airlines flight 11 which was crashed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. "Akamai" is a Hawaiian word meaning "smart" or "intelligent".

Content delivery to a user

Akamai transparently mirrors content—sometimes all content including HTML and CSS, and sometimes just media objects such as audio, graphics, animation, and video—from customer servers. Though the domain name (but not subdomain) is the same, the IP address points to an Akamai 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 is close to them or has a good connection, leading to faster download times and less vulnerability to network congestion or outages.

In addition to image 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.

Customers

Akamai's customers include many large internet, media and computer companies.

Arabic news network Al-Jazeera was a customer from 28 March 2003 until 2 April 2003, when Akamai decided to end the relationship. [ [http://news.com.com/1200-1035-995546.html Akamai ends Al Jazeera server support] ] The network's English-language managing editor claimed this was due to political pressure. [ [http://www-tech.mit.edu/V123/N17/17aljazeera.17n.html Al Jazeera Denied Akamai Services] ]

Acquisitions

In March 2005, Akamai signed an agreement to acquire Speedera Networks for 12 million shares of Akamai common stock, valued at $130 million at that time.cite web |url=http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/2005/press_031605.html |title=Akamai to Acquire Speedera Networks |work=Press Release |publisher=Akamai Technologies, Inc. |date=2005-03-16 ] Both companies also agreed to halt pending lawsuits involving trade secrets and patent infringement. [cite web |url=http://www.news.com/Akamai-snaps-up-rival-Speedera/2100-1038_3-5620140.html |title=Akamai snaps up rival Speedera |publisher=CNET News |date=2005-03-16 ] The acquisition was completed in June 2005. [cite web |url=http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/2005/press_061305.html |title=Akamai Completes Acquisition of Speedera Networks |work=Press Release |publisher=Akamai Technologies, Inc. |date=2005-06-13 ]

On April 12, 2007 Akamai acquired Red Swoosh in exchange for 350,000 shares of Akamai common stock. [cite web | title = Form 10-Q for Akamai Technologies Inc | url = http://biz.yahoo.com/e/070809/akam10-q.html | accessdate = 2007-09-18 ] The acquisition of Red Swoosh was valued at approximately $15 million, net of cash acquired.

See also

* Content Delivery Network

References

External links

* [http://www.akamai.com/ Akamai home page]
* [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_39/b4002094.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_technology Traffic Cops Of The Net (BusinessWeek article)]
* [http://networking.seekingalpha.com/article/19060 Akamai: In the Broadband Internet Sweet Spot (article)]
* [http://www.fool.com/portfolios/rulebreaker/2000/rulebreaker000803.htm The Motley Fool's analysis of Akamai]
* [http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/199/ The Akamai Story: From Theory to Practice]
* [http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/59/59556.html Yahoo! Finance "Akamai Technologies, Inc." Company Profile]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59806-2004Sep29.html Washington Post profile of the company]
* [https://ecc.equinix.com/peering/downloads/CDN-peering.GPF9.ppt Why do CDNs peer with ISPs?]
* [http://gigaom.com/2007/08/06/cdn-price-wars/ 'Akamai & The CDN Price Wars]
* [http://www8.org/w8-papers/2a-webserver/caching/paper2.html How Akamai Built its Caching Servers]
* [http://www.akamai.com/dl/technical_publications/GloballyDistributedContentDelivery.pdf Globally Distributed Content Delivery]