New initiative, code-named Gecko, accelerates Akamai's
build-out of the world's most distributed cloud computing
platform
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 13,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Akamai
Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company that powers and
protects life online, today unveiled plans to embed cloud computing
capabilities into its massive edge network. Akamai's Generalized
Edge Compute (Gecko) advances Akamai's strategy to be the cloud
computing platform for companies that want to deliver better
experiences by running workloads closer to users, devices, and
sources of data.
Akamai's move comes at an exciting juncture for the technology
industry. In a worldwide study conducted in 2023, ClearPath
Strategies found that two-thirds of IT decision-makers said their
use of distributed cloud services is expected to increase over the
next 12 months. More than one-third of respondents said the
benefits of distributed cloud — including the ability to process
and analyze AI and machine learning data quickly and efficiently —
are mission critical to their IT strategy.
The new initiative is the latest move in Akamai's multiyear
strategy to become a key platform in enterprise multicloud
environments. It is another step in the company's vision for a new
kind of cloud designed to meet the needs of modern applications
that require higher performance, lower latency, and true global
scalability that current cloud architectures were not built to
provide.
Akamai has been conducting early trials of Gecko with several of
its enterprise customers. The company anticipates that customers in
AI inferencing, multiplayer gaming, and social and streaming media
are best positioned to take advantage of the power of Gecko. Akamai
sees future use cases in areas such as immersive retail, spatial
computing, data analytics, and consumer and industrial IoT.
Current industry architectures treat cloud and edge networks
separately. Gecko is designed to enable generalized compute to be
deployed on top of Akamai's existing worldwide edge network, taking
advantage of existing tools, processes, and observability to
provide a consistent experience across the entire continuum of
compute from cloud to edge. Gecko will move heavier, traditional
compute — usually confined to centralized data centers — to the
edge of Akamai's network. This will bring full-stack computing to
hundreds of previously hard-to-reach locations, allowing customers
to move workloads closer to their users.
By injecting cloud computing into places that traditional cloud
providers have struggled to reach, developers will no longer have
to think about building for the cloud or building for the edge. As
developers demand more from their cloud and edge providers,
Akamai's plan is to unlock opportunities to innovate across the
entire continuum of compute by driving the convergence necessary to
put cloud computing power at the edge — convergence not possible
before Gecko.
"Gecko is the most exciting thing to happen to the cloud in a
decade," said Dr. Tom Leighton,
Akamai Co-Founder and CEO. "It's the next phase of the roadmap
toward a more connected cloud we laid out when we acquired Linode
to add cost-effective, cloud-native computing capabilities to our
portfolio. We began delivering on that roadmap with the launch of
Akamai Connected Cloud and the rapid rollout of new core computing
regions around the world. With Gecko, we're furthering that vision
by combining the computing power of our cloud platform with the
proximity and efficiency of the edge, to put workloads closer to
users than any other cloud provider. When we say we operate at
planetary scale, this is what we mean."
Akamai Connected Cloud: The World's Most Distributed Cloud
Platform
The scale of Akamai's network, comprising 4,100
points of presence around the globe, makes Akamai Connected Cloud
the world's most distributed cloud platform. Akamai's 25 years of
experience managing massively distributed, fully automated, highly
efficient, and exceptionally reliable networks puts it in a unique
position among the world's top cloud providers. Hyperscalers have
dominated the market based on a decade-old centralized cloud model
that emphasized scale-up compute power at the expense of reach.
Smaller edge and CDN providers focused on scale-out reach in
exchange for compute power. By adding Linode to its network and
building out more core computing regions over the past year, Akamai
has transformed Akamai Connected Cloud into the most distributed
cloud computing platform on the planet. Akamai anticipates that the
ability to harness the power of both the cloud and the edge will
give it an advantage as the industry faces increasing demand to
deliver better price performance, lower latency, and more robust
security for applications and data, built and deployed across a
wider continuum of compute. This advantage, combined with Akamai's
deep experience in distributed networking, is intended to give
customers access to a more powerful, portable, easier-to-use, and
lower-cost cloud.
"Akamai is delivering on the promise it made when it acquired
Linode by quickly integrating compute into its security and
delivery mix," said Dave McCarthy,
IDC, Research Vice President, Cloud and Edge Services. "What
they're now doing with Gecko is an example of the more distributed
cloud world we're heading toward, driven by demands to put compute
and data closer to the edge."
Akamai's Gecko Roadmap: Putting Compute in Hard-to-Reach
Locations
Akamai is rolling out a fast-paced, but pragmatic,
roadmap for Gecko. In its first phase, announced today, Akamai aims
to embed compute with support for virtual machines into 100 cities
by the end of the year. Already, in 2024, Akamai has deployed new
Gecko-architected regions in Hong Kong SAR; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Querétaro,
Mexico; and Johannesburg, South Africa, as well as in
cities without a concentrated hyperscaler presence, including
Bogotá, Colombia; Denver, Colorado; Houston, Texas; Hamburg, Germany; and Marseille, France. Deployment of a 10th Gecko
region in Santiago, Chile, is
planned by the end of the first quarter. Beyond these 10 new Gecko
locations and its existing 25 core computing regions, Akamai
intends to add hundreds of cities to its global cloud computing
footprint over the next several years.
In the second phase of Gecko, which is expected to kick off
later this year, the company plans to add containers to the mix. In
Gecko's third phase, Akamai plans to add automated workload
orchestration to make it easier for developers to build
applications across hundreds of distributed locations, with the end
goal of creating a consistent user experience between each core
computing region and the edge.
About Akamai
Akamai powers and protects life online.
Leading companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and
secure their digital experiences — helping billions of people live,
work, and play every day. Akamai Connected Cloud, a massively
distributed edge and cloud platform, puts apps and experiences
closer to users and keeps threats farther away. Learn more about
Akamai's cloud computing, security, and content delivery solutions
at akamai.com and akamai.com/blog, or follow Akamai
Technologies on X, formerly Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act
This release contains statements that are not
statements of historical fact and constitute forward-looking
statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but
not limited to, statements about expected future performance,
expectations, plans, and prospects of Akamai. 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 failure of our investments in innovation to generate
solutions that are accepted in the market; inability to increase
our revenue at the same rate as in the past and keep our expenses
from increasing at a greater rate than our revenues; effects of
competition, including pricing pressure and changing business
models; impact of macroeconomic trends, including economic
uncertainty, turmoil in the financial services industry, the
effects of inflation, rising and fluctuating interest rates,
foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, securities market
volatility and monetary supply fluctuations; conditions and
uncertainties in the geopolitical environment, including sanctions
and disruptions resulting from the ongoing war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas War; supply chain
and logistics costs, constraints, changes, or disruptions; defects
or disruptions in our products or IT systems, including
cyber-attacks, data breaches, or malware; failure to realize the
expected benefits of any of our acquisitions or reorganizations;
changes to economic, political, and regulatory conditions in
the United States and
internationally; our ability to attract and retain key personnel;
delay in developing or failure to develop new service offerings or
functionalities, and if developed, lack of market acceptance of
such service offerings and functionalities or failure of such
solutions to operate as expected, and other factors that are
discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on
Form 10-Q, and other documents filed with the SEC.
In addition, the statements in this press release represent
Akamai's expectations and beliefs as of the date of this press
release. Akamai anticipates that subsequent events and developments
may cause these expectations and beliefs to change. However, while
Akamai may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some
point in the future, it specifically disclaims any obligation to do
so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as
representing Akamai's expectations or beliefs as of any date
subsequent to the date of this press release.
Contacts
Chris Nicholson
Akamai Media Relations
+1.508.517.3703
cnichols@akamai.com
Tom Barth
Akamai Investor Relations
+1.617.274.7130
tbarth@akamai.com
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SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.