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Akamai Technologies, Inc.
Company typePublic
Industry
Founded1998; 26 years ago (1998)
Founders
HeadquartersCambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Key people
RevenueIncrease US$3.81 billion (2023)
Decrease US$637 million (2023)
Increase US$548 million (2023)
Total assetsIncrease US$9.90 billion (2023)
Total equityIncrease US$4.60 billion (2023)
Number of employees
c. 10,250 (2023)
ASN
Websiteakamai.com
Footnotes / references
[2]

Akamai Technologies, Inc. is an American company specialized in content delivery network[3] (CDN), cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, and cloud services.[4][5] It is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

History

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The company was named after akamai, which means 'clever,' or more colloquially, 'cool' in Hawaiian. Co-founder Daniel M. Lewin found the term in a Hawaiian-English dictionary after a colleague's suggestion.[6]

Akamai Technologies entered the 1998 MIT $50K competition with a business proposition based on their research on consistent hashing,[7] and was selected as one of the finalists.[8] By August 1998, they had developed a working prototype, and with the help of Jonathan Seelig and Randall Kaplan, they took steps to incorporate the company.[9] Akamai Technologies was incorporated on August 20, 1998.[10]

In late 1998 and early 1999, a group of business professionals and scientists joined the founding team—most notably, Paul Sagan, former president of New Media for Time Inc., and George Conrades, former chairman and chief executive officer of BBN Corp. and senior vice president of US operations for IBM. Conrades became chief executive officer of Akamai in April 1999.[11][12][13] The company launched its commercial service in April 1999 and was listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market from October 29, 1999.[14]

On July 1, 2001, Akamai was added to the Russell 3000 Index and Russell 2000 Index.[15]

On September 11, 2001, co-founder Daniel M. Lewin died in the September 11 attacks at the age of 31 when he was stabbed by one of the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center. He was seated closest to the hijackers and may have tried to stop them.[16]

Arabic news network Al-Jazeera was an Akamai customer from March 28, 2003 to April 2, 2003, when Akamai decided to end the relationship,[17] which the network's English-language managing editor claimed was due to "political pressure".[18]

In 2005, Paul Sagan was named chief executive officer of Akamai, taking over from Conrades. Sagan worked to differentiate Akamai from its competitors by expanding its breadth of services.[13] Under his leadership, it grew to $1.37 billion in revenue.[19]

In July 2007, Akamai was added to the S&P 500 Index.[20]

In 2013, co-founder Tom Leighton was elected chief executive officer, replacing Sagan.[21]

In 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged a former executive at Akamai Technologies for illegally tipping non-public information about the company's financial predicament as part of the insider trading scheme operated by now-imprisoned Galleon Management hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam.[22] In 2014 it was reported that the National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation used Facebook's Akamai CDN to collect information on Facebook users.[23]

On February 9, 2021, Akamai announced it would reorganize into two internal groups, Security Technology and Edge Technology. It also re-established the role of chief technology officer, and named Robert Blumofe to that role.[24] Long-time chief security officer (CSO) Andy Ellis announced he would leave in March 2021.[25]

Akamai's headquarters are in Kendall Square. It started in Technology Square and later expanded to multiple buildings in Cambridge Center. It consolidated its offices in a purpose-built building at 145 Broadway in December 2019.[26]

Technologies

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Akamai Intelligent Edge Platform

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The Akamai Intelligent Platform[27] is a distributed cloud computing platform that operates worldwide, a network of over approximately 365,000 servers in more than 135 countries.[28] These servers reside on roughly 1,350 of the world's networks, gathering real-time information about traffic, congestion, and trouble spots.[28] Each Akamai server is equipped with proprietary software that uses complex algorithms to process requests from nearby users.[27]

Content delivery process

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Akamai content delivery to a user

The content delivery process begins with a user submitting a request to a browser. When a user enters a URL, a DNS request is triggered to Akamai's authoritative DNS[29] and an IP address is retrieved. With the IP address, the browser can then directly contact the Akamai edge server for subsequent requests.[30] In a content delivery network (CDN) structure, the domain name of the URL is translated by the mapping system[31] into the IP address of an edge server to serve the content to the user.[27]

Akamai delivers web content over its Intelligent Platform by transparently mirroring elements such as HTML, CSS, software downloads, and media objects from customers' servers. The Akamai server is automatically chosen depending on the type of content and the user's network location. The servers are located in more than 200 countries and territories.[32] Receiving content from a server nearer to the user allows for faster downloads and less vulnerability to network congestion. Akamai claims to provide better scalability by delivering the content over the last mile from servers close to end-users, avoiding the middle-mile bottleneck of the Internet.[33] The Download Delivery product line includes HTTP downloads for large downloadable objects, a customizable application for consumers, and analytics tools with metrics that monitor and report on the download process.[34]

Peer-to-peer networking

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In addition to using its own servers, Akamai delivers certain content from other end-users' computers, in the form of peer-to-peer networking.[35][36]

OPEN Initiative

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On October 9, 2013, Akamai announced its Open Initiative at the 2013 Akamai Edge Conference. OPEN allows customers and partners to develop and customize how they interact with the Akamai Intelligent Platform. Its key components include system and development operations integration, real-time big data integration, and a single-point user interface.[37]

Acquisitions

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  • On February 10, 2000, Akamai acquired Network24 Communications[38] for 621,000 shares of common stock and $12.5 million in cash.[39]
  • On April 20, 2000,[39] Akamai acquired InterVU Inc.[40] for 10.0 million shares of common stock.
  • On July 25, 2000, Akamai acquired CallTheShots, Inc., for an aggregate purchase price of $3.7 million.[39]
  • On June 10, 2005, Akamai acquired Speedera Networks, Inc. for 10.6 million shares of Akamai common stock and options to purchase 1.7 million shares of Akamai common stock.[41]
  • On December 13, 2006, Akamai acquired Nine Systems, Inc.,[42] for an aggregate purchase price of $157.5 million.[43]
  • On March 13, 2007, Akamai acquired Netli Inc. (Netli),[44] for an aggregate purchase price of $154.4 million.
  • On April 12, 2007, Akamai acquired Red Swoosh Inc.[45] for an aggregate purchase price of $18.7 million.[46]
  • On November 3, 2008, Akamai acquired aCerno Inc.,[46] for an aggregate purchase price of $90.8 million.[47]
  • On June 10, 2010, Akamai acquired Velocitude LLC,[48] for an aggregate purchase price of $12 million.[49]
  • On February 7, 2012, Akamai acquired Blaze Software, Inc.,[50] for an aggregate purchase price of $19.3 million.[51]
  • On March 6, 2012, Akamai acquired Cotendo, Inc.,[50] for an aggregate purchase price of $278.9 million.[52]
  • On September 13, 2012, Akamai acquired FastSoft, Inc.,[50] for an aggregate purchase price of $14.4 million.[53]
  • On December 4, 2012, Akamai acquired Verivue, Inc.,[50] for an aggregate purchase price of $30.9 million.[54]
  • On November 8, 2013, Akamai acquired Velocius Networks[55] for an aggregate purchase price of $4.3 million.[56]
  • In February 2014, Akamai acquired cyber security provider Prolexic Technologies[55] for an aggregate purchase price of $390 million.[57]
  • In February 2015, Akamai acquired Xerocole Inc., a domain name system technology company.[58]
  • On April 6, 2015, Akamai acquired Octoshape, a cloud OTT IPTV service provider,[59] for an undisclosed amount.[60]
  • On November 2, 2015, Akamai acquired Bloxx, a provider of Secure Web Gateway (SWG) technology,[61] for an undisclosed amount.[62]
  • On September 28, 2016, Akamai acquired Concord Systems, a provider of technology for the high performance processing of data at scale,[63] for an undisclosed amount.[64]
  • On October 4, 2016, Akamai acquired Soha Systems, an enterprise secure access delivered as a service provider,[65] for an undisclosed amount.[66]
  • On December 19, 2016, Akamai acquired Cyberfend, a bot and automation detection solutions provider,[67] for an undisclosed amount.[68]
  • On March 29, 2017, Akamai acquired SOASTA, a digital performance management company based in Mountain View, CA, for an undisclosed all-cash amount.[69]
  • On October 11, 2017, Akamai acquired Nominum, a carrier-grade DNS and DHCP provider and one of the major players in the creation of the modern DNS, for an undisclosed all-cash amount.[70]
  • On January 24, 2019, Akamai acquired CIAM provider Janrain.[71]
  • In October 2019, Akamai agreed to acquire security software provider ChameleonX for $20 million.[72][73]
  • On October 27, 2020, Akamai acquired IoT and mobile security provider Asavie.[74]
  • On February 1, 2021, Akamai acquired Inverse Inc. a Montreal Canadian based security company making an open source network access controller (NAC) called PacketFence.[75]
  • On September 29, 2021, Akamai Technologies acquired Guardicore for $600 million.[76]
  • On February 15, 2022, Akamai acquired Linode for $900 million.[77]
  • On May 7, 2024, Akamai announced its intent to acquire API Security vendor Noname Security [he] for $450 million.[78] The deal was completed on June 25, 2024.[79]

Key scientific publications

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These papers in scientific conferences and journals describe Akamai's technology in greater detail:

See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Akamai Announces Board Of Directors Changes". Akamai Technologies, Inc. March 18, 2021.
  2. ^ "Akamai Technologies, Inc. 2023 Form 10-K Annual Report". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 28, 2024.
  3. ^ J. Dilley, B. Maggs, J. Parikh, H. Prokop, R. Sitaraman, and B. Weihl. "Globally Distributed Content Delivery, IEEE Internet Computing, September/October 2002, pp. 50–58" (PDF).
  4. ^ Hendy, Nina (March 3, 2020). "How to avoid falling victim to a cyber attack". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  5. ^ "Akamai Stock Finds Support On Video Streaming Surge | Investor's Business Daily". Investor's Business Daily. March 17, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  6. ^ "How these nine Mass. tech companies got their names". Boston Business Journal. April 28, 2014. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
  7. ^ Bruce Maggs and Ramesh Sitaraman (2015). "Algorithmic nuggets in content delivery" (PDF). ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review. 45 (3).
  8. ^ "Two teams win top prize in MIT $50K contest". MIT News. May 13, 1998. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  9. ^ "Akamai Technologies Inc". Reuters. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  10. ^ "Company History". www.akamai.com.
  11. ^ "Akamai Technologies, Inc. History". fundinguniverse.com. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
  12. ^ "Conrades to resign from Akamai". Boston Business Journal. No. January 5, 2005. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  13. ^ a b Frier, Sarah; Womack, Brian (April 26, 2012). "Akamai Says CEO Sagan to Leave; Profit Less Than Estimates". Bloomberg. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  14. ^ "AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES INC (AKAM) IPO". NASDAQ. Retrieved June 16, 2014.
  15. ^ "Akamai Technologies, Inc. Added to the Russell 3000 Index and Russell 2000 Index". July 17, 2001. Archived from the original on February 4, 2014. Retrieved June 20, 2014.
  16. ^ Leopold, Todd (September 11, 2013). "The legacy of Danny Lewin, the first victims of 9/11". CNN. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  17. ^ "Akamai ends Al Jazeera server support". news.cnet.com. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  18. ^ "Al Jazeera Denied Akamai Services". Tech.mit.edu. April 8, 2003. Archived from the original on November 7, 2013. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  19. ^ "Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM) Income Statement". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  20. ^ Frier, Sarah; Mulier, Thomas (July 10, 2007). "Akamai Names Leighton CEO After Eight-Month Search". DataCenterKnowledge. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  21. ^ Frier, Sarah; Mulier, Thomas (December 17, 2012). "Akamai Names Leighton CEO After Eight-Month Search". BloombergBusinessweek. Archived from the original on September 25, 2014. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  22. ^ "SEC Charges Former Technology Company Executive for Role in Rajaratnam Insider Trading Scheme". VentureBeat. September 20, 2013.
  23. ^ Harrison Weber (May 15, 2014). "Facebook & Akamai respond to NSA slides alleging massive CDN vulnerability". VentureBeat.
  24. ^ Gagliordi, Natalie (February 9, 2021). "Akamai tops Q4 expectations, announces reorganization and new CTO". ZDNet. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
  25. ^ @csoandy (February 9, 2021). "Thread : Andy Ellis on Twitter..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  26. ^ "Akamai Opens New HQ In Cambridge". www.wbur.org. November 2019.
  27. ^ a b c Nygren, Erik; Sitaraman, Ramesh K.; Sun, Jennifer, The Akamai Network: A Platform for High-Performance Internet Applications (PDF)
  28. ^ a b "Facts & Figures | Akamai". www.akamai.com. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  29. ^ Kyle Schomp, Onkar Bhardwaj, Eymen Kurdoglu, Mashooq Muhaimen, and Ramesh K. Sitaraman. "Akamai DNS: Providing Authoritative Answers to the World's Queries, ACM SIGCOMM conference, Aug 2020" (PDF).
  30. ^ Zakas, Nicholas C. (November 29, 2011). "How content delivery networks (CDNs) work". NCZOnline.
  31. ^ "End-User Mapping: Next Generation Request Routing for Content Delivery, by F. Chen, R. Sitaraman, and M. Torres, ACM SIGCOMM conference, Aug 2015" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on August 12, 2017. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
  32. ^ "Countries in which Akamai maintains Server Points of Presence" (PDF). June 6, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  33. ^ "Inside Akamai and the scary future of streaming video, GigaOm". August 19, 2011. Archived from the original on December 11, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  34. ^ "Download Delivery". Akamai Technologies. January 26, 2018. Archived from the original on January 18, 2018. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  35. ^ Ben Homer (January 26, 2010). "Akamai Using P2P for Enhanced Video Delivery". Online Video Watch. Archived from the original on May 15, 2013. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
  36. ^ "Akamai NetSession Interface – Design Principles". Akamai Technologies. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
  37. ^ "Akamai Unveils Open Platform Initiative at Akamai Edge 2013 Customer Conference". Yahoo! Finance. October 9, 2013. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  38. ^ "Akamai to Acquire Network24 Communications". StreamingMedia.com. January 18, 2000. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  39. ^ a b c "Akamai Annual Report 2000" (PDF). Akamai Technologies, Inc.
  40. ^ Richtymyer, Richard (February 7, 2000). "Akamai buys InterVu". CNN Money. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  41. ^ "Akamai Annual Report 2005" (PDF). Akamai Technologies, Inc.
  42. ^ Kawamoto, Dawn (November 20, 2006). "Akamai to buy Nine Systems". CNET News. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  43. ^ "Akamai Annual Report 2006" (PDF). Akamai Technologies, Inc.
  44. ^ Gross, Grant (February 5, 2007). "Akamai to acquire Netli for about $170 million". NetworkWorld. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  45. ^ Arrington, Michael (April 12, 2007). "Payday for Red Swoosh: $15 million from Akamai". Tech Crunch. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  46. ^ a b "Akamai Annual Report 2009" (PDF). Akamai Technologies, Inc.
  47. ^ Kaplan, David (October 21, 2008). "Branching Out, Akamai Acquires Ad Targeter Acerno For $95 Million". Tech Crunch. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  48. ^ "Akamai Annual Report 2010" (PDF). Akamai Technologies, Inc.
  49. ^ Boutin, Paul (June 10, 2010). "Akamai acquires mobile services company Velocitude". VentureBeat. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  50. ^ a b c d "Akamai Annual Report 2012" (PDF). Akamai Technologies, Inc.
  51. ^ Huang, Gregory T. (February 8, 2012). "Akamai Buys Blaze as Web Optimization Heats Up in Boston". Xconomy. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  52. ^ Wauters, Robin (December 22, 2011). "Done Deal – Akamai Buys Rival Cotendo For $268 Million". Tech Crunch. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  53. ^ McCarthy, Maureen (September 14, 2012). "Akamai Technologies snaps up FastSoft". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  54. ^ Whittaker, Zack (November 13, 2012). "Akamai expands digital content delivery network, acquires Verivue". ZDNet. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  55. ^ a b "Akamai Annual Report 2013" (PDF). Akamai Technologies, Inc.
  56. ^ Dignan, Larry (November 11, 2013). "Akamai buys Velocious Networks". ZDNet. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  57. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (December 2, 2013). "Akamai Buys DDoS Prevention Specialist Prolexic For $370M To Ramp Up Security Offerings For Enterprises". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  58. ^ Castellanos, Sara (March 2, 2015). "Akamai Technologies acquires Colorado domain name system tech firm Xerocole". Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  59. ^ "Media Delivery Solutions for Streaming Video and Software Delivery - Akamai". www.akamai.com.
  60. ^ "Akamai Acquires Octoshape to Optimize Streaming Video - 040615 - Akamai". www.akamai.com.
  61. ^ "Bloxx - Real Time Web & Email Filtering". www.bloxx.com.
  62. ^ "Akamai Acquires Bloxx for Cloud Security - Akamai". www.akamai.com.
  63. ^ "Concord: Concord.io". Archived from the original on December 17, 2016. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
  64. ^ "Akamai Acquires Data Processing Provider Concord Systems - Akamai". www.akamai.com.
  65. ^ "Secure Application Access - Akamai". www.akamai.com.
  66. ^ "Akamai Acquires Soha Systems for Secure Remote Access to Enterprise Applications - Akamai". www.akamai.com.
  67. ^ "Bot Manager - Akamai". www.akamai.com.
  68. ^ "about/news/press/2016-press/akamai-acquires-cyberfend.jsp". www.akamai.com.
  69. ^ "Akamai agrees to acquire SOASTA". Reuters. March 29, 2017. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
  70. ^ "Akamai agrees to acquire Nominum". Reuters. October 11, 2017. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
  71. ^ "Akamai Completes Acquisition Of Customer Identity Access Management Company Janrain Inc". www.Akamai.com. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  72. ^ "Akamai Technologies Announces Acquisition Of ChameleonX - Quick Facts | Markets Insider". markets.businessinsider.com. Insider Inc. and finanzen.net GmbH (Imprint). Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via RTTNews.
  73. ^ "Akamai Technologies Announces Acquisition Of ChameleonX - Quick Facts". www.nasdaq.com. Nasdaq, Inc. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via RTTNews.
  74. ^ "Akamai Technologies Advances 5G Security Strategy With Acquisition Of Asavie".
  75. ^ "Akamai Technologies Acquires Inverse Inc., Adds To Zero Trust Security Platform". Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  76. ^ Mirchevska, Sara (October 4, 2021). "Akamai Technologies Acquires Guardicore in A$600 Million Worth Deal". HostAdvice.
  77. ^ "Akamai To Acquire Linode to Provide Businesses with a Developer-friendly and Massively-distributed Platform to Build, Run and Secure Next Generation Applications". Akamai. February 15, 2022.
  78. ^ "Akamai to Acquire API Protection Startup Noname Security for $450 Million". SecurityWeek. May 7, 2024. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  79. ^ "Akamai doubles down on API security with Noname acquisition". SDxCentral. June 27, 2024. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
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