Akamai Technologies - The Akamai Network: Edge Platform

The Akamai Network: Edge Platform

The Akamai Network is one of the world's largest distributed computing platforms. 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 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."

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.