Akamai Helps Customers Decrease Time-to-Value for Application Acceleration with Configuration Manager

New tool simplifies integration, reduces deployment time and cost of ownership

CAMBRIDGE, MA. - Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, has further extended the time-to-value benefit of its Web Application Accelerator(SM) managed service with the general availability of Configuration Manager(SM), a new tool used to simplify the configuration of application-specific optimizations. Configuration Manager provides access to all the rich, flexible application delivery options for the Akamai Web Application Accelerator service through an easy to use interface enabling users to quickly configure and add new Web-enabled applications to be delivered using the Akamai Platform.

Included as an extension of Configuration Manager is Akamai’s real-world integrated staging environment for testing of configuration changes made prior to production deployment. By testing application configuration changes on Akamai’s staging environment, the risks associated with live testing are greatly reduced. Furthermore, the need to purchase and manage additional infrastructure for pre-production test environments is eliminated.

“Akamai has taken an important and valuable step with Configuration Manager,” said Peter Christy, Principal, Internet Research Group. “By formalizing the configuration of the many Akamai application acceleration services into a well-defined metadata representation, Akamai has provided the means by which customers can specify, adapt, replicate and deploy those optimizations that deliver the most effective outcome on their specific applications, as well as take advantage of best-practices learning from Akamai. The use of metadata also greatly simplifies testing and staging to production. As icing on the cake, Akamai also provides an intuitive and easy to use visual tool for the construction and modification of these settings.”

Customers like Autotask Corporation Network Administrator Toby Harris find Configuration Manager simple to use. “By choosing answers to simple questions about desired application configuration and application performance, availability, scale and security, Akamai’s Configuration Manager automatically generates the configuration files for me. It allows me to make application changes quickly.”

“Enterprises choose Akamai managed application acceleration services because they gain an almost immediate time-to-value,” said Willie M. Tejada, vice president, Application Performance Solutions, Akamai Technologies. “With Configuration Manager, we’ve further extended our time-to-value advantage for accelerating enterprise applications such as SAP®, Oracle® and Microsoft® by simplifying the application configuration and integration process. We’ve also created the Akamai application staging network where customers can test configuration changes with full version control and at no additional cost, ensuring their end users are not adversely affected when changes go live.”

Configuration Manager is generally available today and at no additional cost to Web Application Accelerator customers. Akamai Professional Services packages are available to customers opting for complete turnkey application integration, testing and tuning.

Akamai’s Web Application Accelerator service leverages Akamai’s globally-deployed platform to deliver consistent, improved application performance for enterprise customers and SaaS providers. Akamai accelerates customers’ dynamic Web applications using a number of unique techniques including dynamic mapping, route optimization, advanced communications protocols and connection optimization technology. As a result, Akamai customers enjoy increased user adoption of Web-enabled applications for greater productivity and decreased support costs.