Akamai Unveils New Standard for Communicating with Caches
Building upon the existing and successful interoperability between caches and value-added services such as Akamai's Internet content delivery service, FreeFlow, this new protocol further demonstrates the complementary nature of Akamai's service with caching vendors' products. The added functionality will be derived by the development of a new standard for communications called the Cache Interface Protocol. The development of this protocol will enable caches to report on their performance - such as the number of hits served - to Web site owners through Akamai's content delivery services. This development will expand the level of functionality in the caching market for the benefit of both ISPs and Web site owners. Akamai will make the protocol available to third parties at no cost.
Complementary Technologies
Caching and Internet content delivery are separate and complementary products. Caches are hardware and/or software systems sold to ISPs and enterprises for the purpose of reducing bandwidth expense and improving Internet performance. Akamai's FreeFlow service is sold to major Web sites to improve speed and reliability, and is built upon a global network of servers deployed at ISPs' points-of-presence (POPs) and data centers. Today, many ISPs which have installed caches also have Akamai's servers located alongside them. Whenever Internet users request popular content from Akamai's Web site customers, these ISPs' caches transparently retrieve it from Akamai servers, even when it is marked uncacheable, ensuring that only fresh content is delivered.
Simon Hackett, technical director of Internode, the largest ISP in South Australia said, "We host Akamai's servers to vastly accelerate access to the major Web sites that have partnered with Akamai. In addition, we are a large user of caching engines to provide transparent acceleration of access to the rest of the Web. We are eager to harness the benefits of having the Akamai and caching offerings communicating together in order to realize even greater benefits from deploying both solutions on our network."
"This joint effort between content delivery and caching vendors illustrates that traditional Internet caching and content delivery are complementary approaches, not competitive," said Peter Christy, vice president and principal analyst of the Internet Research Group (Los Altos, CA). "The specifics of the new protocol show that it's relatively easy to make a cache participate in the Akamai content delivery network. The result is more than the sum of the parts for both the content provider and the network operator."
"Akamai is focused on running the best Internet content delivery network possible for our customers, major Web site owners," said George Conrades, Akamai chairman and CEO. "The development of this specialized software will improve our offering by adding new functionality, as well as ensure that Internet carriers worldwide benefit from the use of the Akamai FreeFlow network while enhancing their investment in leading caches."
About Akamai
Akamai Technologies is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has offices in San Mateo and Cupertino, California, and Europe. Akamai is the leader in distributed content, streaming media, and applications delivery, serving over 225 of the Web's most popular properties including over 100 leading e-commerce companies. Akamai has deployed the broadest global network for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with more than 2000 servers in over 40 countries directly connected to more than 100 different telecommunications networks. Akamai (pronounced AH kuh my) is Hawaiian for intelligent, clever and cool.
| Contacts: |
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| Jeff Young Akamai Technologies 617-250-3913 jyoung@akamai.com |
--or-- | Marco Greenberg NYPR 212-367-9600 marco@nypr.com |
| Lisa Bradlow NYPR 212-367-9600 lisa@nypr.com |
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Akamai introduces interface for successful interoperability between caches and the Company's Internet content delivery service, FreeFlow
CAMBRIDGE, MA, September 22, 1999 -- Akamai Technologies, which operates a global Internet content delivery service that speeds up Web performance, announced today the development of a protocol that facilitates communications between caches and Akamai's global network of servers. In separate announcements today, the Company also released that leading cache vendors are already implementing the new protocol.Building upon the existing and successful interoperability between caches and value-added services such as Akamai's Internet content delivery service, FreeFlow, this new protocol further demonstrates the complementary nature of Akamai's service with caching vendors' products. The added functionality will be derived by the development of a new standard for communications called the Cache Interface Protocol. The development of this protocol will enable caches to report on their performance - such as the number of hits served - to Web site owners through Akamai's content delivery services. This development will expand the level of functionality in the caching market for the benefit of both ISPs and Web site owners. Akamai will make the protocol available to third parties at no cost.
Complementary Technologies
Caching and Internet content delivery are separate and complementary products. Caches are hardware and/or software systems sold to ISPs and enterprises for the purpose of reducing bandwidth expense and improving Internet performance. Akamai's FreeFlow service is sold to major Web sites to improve speed and reliability, and is built upon a global network of servers deployed at ISPs' points-of-presence (POPs) and data centers. Today, many ISPs which have installed caches also have Akamai's servers located alongside them. Whenever Internet users request popular content from Akamai's Web site customers, these ISPs' caches transparently retrieve it from Akamai servers, even when it is marked uncacheable, ensuring that only fresh content is delivered.
Simon Hackett, technical director of Internode, the largest ISP in South Australia said, "We host Akamai's servers to vastly accelerate access to the major Web sites that have partnered with Akamai. In addition, we are a large user of caching engines to provide transparent acceleration of access to the rest of the Web. We are eager to harness the benefits of having the Akamai and caching offerings communicating together in order to realize even greater benefits from deploying both solutions on our network."
"This joint effort between content delivery and caching vendors illustrates that traditional Internet caching and content delivery are complementary approaches, not competitive," said Peter Christy, vice president and principal analyst of the Internet Research Group (Los Altos, CA). "The specifics of the new protocol show that it's relatively easy to make a cache participate in the Akamai content delivery network. The result is more than the sum of the parts for both the content provider and the network operator."
"Akamai is focused on running the best Internet content delivery network possible for our customers, major Web site owners," said George Conrades, Akamai chairman and CEO. "The development of this specialized software will improve our offering by adding new functionality, as well as ensure that Internet carriers worldwide benefit from the use of the Akamai FreeFlow network while enhancing their investment in leading caches."
About Akamai
Akamai Technologies is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has offices in San Mateo and Cupertino, California, and Europe. Akamai is the leader in distributed content, streaming media, and applications delivery, serving over 225 of the Web's most popular properties including over 100 leading e-commerce companies. Akamai has deployed the broadest global network for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with more than 2000 servers in over 40 countries directly connected to more than 100 different telecommunications networks. Akamai (pronounced AH kuh my) is Hawaiian for intelligent, clever and cool.
