Akamai Focused on What's Next Following New Traffic Milestone
Akamai hit a new milestone last week when web traffic delivered across our edge network peaked at 200 terabits per second (Tbps). To be blunt - that's a whole lot of data traveling the world in a very short amount of time. We believe we can make a good case that it's more than the entire (reported) network capacities of multiple Akamai competitors combined.
Here's another way to look at it: If one cup of coffee is equal to 1 megabyte, then 200 Tbps would give everyone in New York City more than 180 cups of coffee per minute.
Traffic on the Akamai network first hit 1 Tbps in June 2008, then 10 Tbps in September 2012, and 100 Tbps in October 2019. Remarkably, less than two years later, we've reached the 200 Tbps threshold.
A combination of major video game downloads, a big sporting event, and several large software updates drove last week's peak traffic. We're often asked why it's so important that Akamai have a network that's as scalable and distributed as it is - and last week is a good example of the importance of our distributed network.
We want all our customers to be confident that they can conduct their business on the internet no matter what else is happening online - whether it's 20 million people live-streaming a cricket match in India, a wildly popular video game being rolled out globally or, unfortunately, combating increasingly large and sophisticated cyberattacks that are targeting businesses. The scale and reach of the Akamai network is fundamental to facilitating good business and stopping bad actors without impacting end users' experiences.
While 200 Tbps is a big deal and we celebrate it, we've never been ones to rest on our laurels. As Akamai's co-founder Danny Lewin used to say, "We're behind." That's why we're already focused on what's next for our customers and the next 100 terabits.
