From developing gaming platforms in PS3 to addressing weaknesses on the
Internet, what really has been the distinguishing point for you?
When you consider that Akamai today serves almost 20% of the Internet
content daily, and the rate at which the Internet keeps evolving, you can
appreciate the technology changes we need to keep making to be relevant in the
market. In short, we want to provide the best possible performance and
experience for our customers, and hence our strategy has always been to deploy
Web servers into thousands of ISPs close to end-users. We have deployed 34,000
odd servers across 900 plus networks. We are working with 900 ISPs, and we would
like to double that number soon.
We dont stop with having our servers near end-users. We sit on top of that
network and find better routes on the Internet. We dont change the protocol,
but we will tunnel traffic through other Akamai servers that would not otherwise
be on the path. That is what makes us unique.
What would drive the growth of Akamai in an era, when the Internet has
matured in most markets across the world, and online commerce and content are
ready to take the journey further?
The Internet has grown in capacity but in disproportionate ways. The content
delivery capacity has gone up by a factor of fifty to end-users. We had a 256K
modem, and now we have 20-40 Mb service. On an average, over the last five
years, there has been a factor of 50X growth in the last mile of bandwidth. The
first mile bandwidth, where the data centers are located at the core of the
Internet, has grown by a factor of twenty.
E-commerce is a great new source of revenue and efficiency, but if we dont
take into account the related problems, some of that may be at risk. Basic
protocols are insecure. We help our customers with many of these issues. We help
shield them against DoS attacks.
What is your study on the slowdown that the globe is witnessing and how
would it affect the functioning of the Internet?
These are tough economic times no doubt, but I dont think this will hurt
the Internet and businesses supporting the Internet like us. We expect companies
to save money by moving operations to the Internet, and businesses will see
moving to the Internet as a good strategy to cut costs in a tough economic
climate.
Prasad Ramasubramanian
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in