Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Selects Akamai to Support Integrated Program
A first-of-its-kind event in Canada, THE GREATEST CANADIAN is a high-profile series that charts the nation's collective efforts through effective use of television and the Internet to name the one Canadian who viewers believe is the greatest of them all. CBC began marketing the series earlier this year and, in May, collected more than 150,000 nominations from viewers across Canada. On October 18th, CBC began airing a twice-weekly television series to unveil the Top Ten nominees. Through November 28th, viewers can watch individual broadcasts of the Top Ten and vote for their choice via the Internet, telephone, and text message.
The Internet has been a key driver of THE GREATEST CANADIAN series, with CBC's dedicated website, www.cbc.ca/greatest. In addition to being able to vote for their favorite Great Canadian via the site, participants can access in-depth information on the nominees, the advocates' case for each nominee, and their current standings in the competition, as well as upcoming details about the series.
When planning its Web infrastructure to support the nationwide campaign, CBC was uncertain as to the magnitude of traffic that the series would create. Making the decision to purchase more servers to support online applications, including voting, was both costly and impossible to estimate. CBC needed a solution that could scale on-demand, provide a high level of security, and be implemented in a short timeframe to meet the aggressive marketing schedule. CBC turned to Akamai's EdgeSuite content delivery service to ensure site reliability and a positive user experience, and implemented the EdgeComputing service to offload the delivery of the voting application to Akamai's EdgePlatform. EdgeComputing ensures that the voting application is available and is high-performing, regardless of where, when and how often it is being accessed.
"Viewer interest in the earlier GREATEST CANADIAN nomination phase was very high. For the voting phase, we needed a system that could withstand unpredictable traffic spikes. The system had to be highly scalable and reliable. In addition, we required fast turnaround times for registration and processing," said Ben Minbashian, Manager, Production & Operations, CBC.ca. "Akamai was selected since we needed a solution provider that had the application platform and history of supporting events of this magnitude. Akamai's in-depth knowledge and experience was a great asset to us given the tight implementation timelines."
"As integrated campaigns of this kind continue to garner impressive results, the Web has become a critical destination for marketing initiatives," said Lisa Arthur, chief marketing officer, Akamai. "By making it easier and more cost-effective to deploy and maintain applications online, Akamai is enabling CBC to leverage the Internet to touch their loyal audience base with innovative programming and promotions. We are excited to play an important role in CBC's THE GREATEST CANADIAN series."
Akamai EdgeComputing is an on demand, managed service to enable the rapid deployment of Internet applications. Using Akamai's globally distributed platform, enterprise applications scale instantly, perform predictably, and overcome the functionality limitations that exist in centralized deployments. EdgeComputing offers enterprises a flexible pay-per-use computing model that drives IT efficiencies to new levels while allowing innovation not possible with fixed asset deployments.
About CBC.ca
CBC.ca is Canada's most comprehensive online source for up-to-the minute news and information and the largest website dedicated to the Canadian viewpoint. CBC.ca sets the standard for breaking news, expert analysis, and in-depth background features on issues affecting Canadians at home and abroad. CBC.ca visitors will also find sports news and statistics, business and arts news, kids content, rich interactive features, live and on-demand streaming media, CBC program listings, wireless and e-mail news delivery, digital archives and much more. For more information, visit www.cbc.ca.
About Akamai
Akamai® is the global leader of distributed computing solutions and services, making the Internet predictable, scalable, and secure for conducting profitable e-business. The Akamai on demand platform enables customers to easily extend their Web operations - with full control - anywhere, anytime, without the cost of building out infrastructure. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Akamai serves hundreds of today's most successful enterprises and government agencies around the globe. Akamai is The Business Internet. For more information, visit www.akamai.com.
# # #
Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, unexpected increases in Akamai's use of funds, lack of market acceptance of our services, failure to achieve incremental revenue growth, the effects of any attempts to intentionally disrupt our services or network by hackers or others, failure to have available sufficient transmission capacity, a failure of Akamai's network infrastructure, and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.
| Contacts: |
||
|
Caryn Brownell Media Relations Akamai Technologies, Inc. 617-444-2524 caryn.brownell@akamai.com |
--or-- |
Sandy Smith Investor Relations Akamai Technologies, Inc. 617-444-2804 ssmith@akamai.com |
|
Ruth-Ellen Soles Head of Media Relations CBC, Toronto 416-205-6638 ruth-ellen_soles@cbc.ca |
||
EdgeComputing delivers on-demand Internet infrastructure to support online voting application for CBC's current series, THE GREATEST CANADIAN
Cambridge, Mass. - November 23, 2004 - Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), the global leader of distributed computing solutions and services, today announced that CBC.ca, the online arm of CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster, is using the Akamai EdgeSuite® and EdgeComputing® services to support CBC's latest television project, THE GREATEST CANADIAN, now airing on CBC Television and accessible via the Internet at http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/.A first-of-its-kind event in Canada, THE GREATEST CANADIAN is a high-profile series that charts the nation's collective efforts through effective use of television and the Internet to name the one Canadian who viewers believe is the greatest of them all. CBC began marketing the series earlier this year and, in May, collected more than 150,000 nominations from viewers across Canada. On October 18th, CBC began airing a twice-weekly television series to unveil the Top Ten nominees. Through November 28th, viewers can watch individual broadcasts of the Top Ten and vote for their choice via the Internet, telephone, and text message.
The Internet has been a key driver of THE GREATEST CANADIAN series, with CBC's dedicated website, www.cbc.ca/greatest. In addition to being able to vote for their favorite Great Canadian via the site, participants can access in-depth information on the nominees, the advocates' case for each nominee, and their current standings in the competition, as well as upcoming details about the series.
When planning its Web infrastructure to support the nationwide campaign, CBC was uncertain as to the magnitude of traffic that the series would create. Making the decision to purchase more servers to support online applications, including voting, was both costly and impossible to estimate. CBC needed a solution that could scale on-demand, provide a high level of security, and be implemented in a short timeframe to meet the aggressive marketing schedule. CBC turned to Akamai's EdgeSuite content delivery service to ensure site reliability and a positive user experience, and implemented the EdgeComputing service to offload the delivery of the voting application to Akamai's EdgePlatform. EdgeComputing ensures that the voting application is available and is high-performing, regardless of where, when and how often it is being accessed.
"Viewer interest in the earlier GREATEST CANADIAN nomination phase was very high. For the voting phase, we needed a system that could withstand unpredictable traffic spikes. The system had to be highly scalable and reliable. In addition, we required fast turnaround times for registration and processing," said Ben Minbashian, Manager, Production & Operations, CBC.ca. "Akamai was selected since we needed a solution provider that had the application platform and history of supporting events of this magnitude. Akamai's in-depth knowledge and experience was a great asset to us given the tight implementation timelines."
"As integrated campaigns of this kind continue to garner impressive results, the Web has become a critical destination for marketing initiatives," said Lisa Arthur, chief marketing officer, Akamai. "By making it easier and more cost-effective to deploy and maintain applications online, Akamai is enabling CBC to leverage the Internet to touch their loyal audience base with innovative programming and promotions. We are excited to play an important role in CBC's THE GREATEST CANADIAN series."
Akamai EdgeComputing is an on demand, managed service to enable the rapid deployment of Internet applications. Using Akamai's globally distributed platform, enterprise applications scale instantly, perform predictably, and overcome the functionality limitations that exist in centralized deployments. EdgeComputing offers enterprises a flexible pay-per-use computing model that drives IT efficiencies to new levels while allowing innovation not possible with fixed asset deployments.
About CBC.ca
CBC.ca is Canada's most comprehensive online source for up-to-the minute news and information and the largest website dedicated to the Canadian viewpoint. CBC.ca sets the standard for breaking news, expert analysis, and in-depth background features on issues affecting Canadians at home and abroad. CBC.ca visitors will also find sports news and statistics, business and arts news, kids content, rich interactive features, live and on-demand streaming media, CBC program listings, wireless and e-mail news delivery, digital archives and much more. For more information, visit www.cbc.ca.
About Akamai
Akamai® is the global leader of distributed computing solutions and services, making the Internet predictable, scalable, and secure for conducting profitable e-business. The Akamai on demand platform enables customers to easily extend their Web operations - with full control - anywhere, anytime, without the cost of building out infrastructure. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Akamai serves hundreds of today's most successful enterprises and government agencies around the globe. Akamai is The Business Internet. For more information, visit www.akamai.com.
Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, unexpected increases in Akamai's use of funds, lack of market acceptance of our services, failure to achieve incremental revenue growth, the effects of any attempts to intentionally disrupt our services or network by hackers or others, failure to have available sufficient transmission capacity, a failure of Akamai's network infrastructure, and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.
