Google buys Akamai
Okay; thank you for not just tweeting the headline for you see Google has not yet bought Akamai. There are rumours that the search giant will buy the ... well ... how to describe Akamai to people who don’t know it? It’s a giant content delivery network, a CDN of sorts.
Most people are familiar with Akamai only through email marketing when the domain sometimes appears in the sender field.
In truth Akamai’s services are far more complex than that. They have servers around the world and offer a system to large sites which allows a distributed and cached delivery system of content. This means Akamai serves the content rather than the original web server. It’s a way to manage load.
Google uses it. Here at bigmouthmedia we often debate just how heavily Google leans on Akamai.
There are a number of reasons why Google would be interested in buying Akamai over and above a move to secure a key supplier and slash costs.
Akamai works with dozens of ISPs and their system could, if tuned right, act like a giant data harvester. So many of Akamai’s big clients are the very sort of company that doesn’t want to put Google Analytics on their site. With Akamai’s reach (and a tweak or two) Google would have access to a lot more behavioural content analysis.
Video marketing – video in general – is really taking off. As video grows the need for super support structures like Akamai also grows.
Perhaps most of all are the Akamai team. They’re good. They’re really good and Google loves to buy talent.
I don’t know if I’ve called this one right – Google buys Akamai? Seems like a match in heaven. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw this headline for real some day.
Most people are familiar with Akamai only through email marketing when the domain sometimes appears in the sender field.
In truth Akamai’s services are far more complex than that. They have servers around the world and offer a system to large sites which allows a distributed and cached delivery system of content. This means Akamai serves the content rather than the original web server. It’s a way to manage load.
Google uses it. Here at bigmouthmedia we often debate just how heavily Google leans on Akamai.
There are a number of reasons why Google would be interested in buying Akamai over and above a move to secure a key supplier and slash costs.
Akamai works with dozens of ISPs and their system could, if tuned right, act like a giant data harvester. So many of Akamai’s big clients are the very sort of company that doesn’t want to put Google Analytics on their site. With Akamai’s reach (and a tweak or two) Google would have access to a lot more behavioural content analysis.
Video marketing – video in general – is really taking off. As video grows the need for super support structures like Akamai also grows.
Perhaps most of all are the Akamai team. They’re good. They’re really good and Google loves to buy talent.
I don’t know if I’ve called this one right – Google buys Akamai? Seems like a match in heaven. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw this headline for real some day.
