Making the Internet Resilient: Part One
Think how many websites you visit or videos you stream. Do you check your bank account or transfer money, download apps, play music, share updates on social media, or use the internet for any of the thousands of other digital experiences it enables every day?
The fact is, most people don’t think about them — or about the many complex interactions involved in making these experiences possible. They take for granted that the internet will work as they expect. And that’s how it should be.
At Akamai, we’ve been focused on making the internet a reliable conduit for digital experiences for more than 20 years. Ensuring the resilience of our highly distributed global network is a priority at the core of our commitment to Akamai customers.
Achieving that resilience is a complex task. That’s because the internet is not a single “thing,” but rather a vast conglomeration of endpoints and networks around the globe that are interconnected through business relationships among private enterprises. Those relationships are not necessarily optimized for a particular end-user purpose. For example, internet traffic is often sent along the most economical route, rather than the most expeditious one.
Adding to this complexity is the fact that the internet is a moving target, continually evolving. Software that powers the internet is constantly updated to address potential vulnerabilities and improve performance. Standards evolve to keep pace with growing demands, such as the shift from IPv4 to IPv6 to accommodate the explosion in IP addresses. And the issue of security is more critical than ever, with all stakeholders focused on making the internet safer in the face of cyberattacks growing in both frequency and magnitude.
To meet the challenge, Akamai continues to prioritize investments with a focus on ensuring the resilience, performance, and security of our network. In addition to investing in technology, this commitment has a human element. Akamai has brought together some of the industry’s most accomplished professionals — from system architects to experts influencing the development of IP standards — to enhance the resilience and security of our platform and our products.
We’ll introduce you to these extraordinary professionals through a series of blog posts. They will explain the innovations Akamai employs to make our platform — deployed across more than 4,000 points of presence in 135 countries — the performant, resilient, and secure network billions of people rely on every day for exceptional digital experiences.
It promises to be a fascinating journey — I hope you’ll join us.
