Akamai Cloudlets: Self‑service edge apps to optimize UX and offload your origin
Cloudlets are prebuilt, policy‑driven applications that extend your Akamai delivery configuration to solve specific performance and traffic‑management challenges without custom development. Deployed on the Akamai Connected Cloud edge, Cloudlets help you improve user experience, control traffic, and reduce origin load across common scenarios like load balancing, virtual waiting rooms, redirects, phased releases, and more.
How Cloudlets work
Provision: Purchase individual Cloudlets via the Akamai Marketplace and add them in Property Manager.
Configure: Use an intuitive UI or the Cloudlets API to define policies and rules.
Enable: User requests are routed to an optimal edge server, which fetches your policies, applies edge logic, and returns a response.
Manage: Version and permission controls (viewer, editor, admin; some with custom permissions) make it easy to operate at scale. A single policy can be associated with one or multiple properties.
What Cloudlets can do at the edge
Load balancing and failover: Distribute traffic intelligently across physical, virtual, and cloud origins while honoring custom policies and session behavior.
Virtual waiting rooms and traffic queuing: Protect dynamic apps during demand spikes, reduce abandonment, and keep the origin stable.
API traffic prioritization: Ensure critical API calls get through during surges while gracefully degrading less critical traffic.
High‑volume URL redirects: Manage large redirect sets at the edge to cut round trips and offload your origin.
Canary and phased releases: Roll out safely to a percentage of users with instant rollback if needed.
Audience segmentation and A/B testing: Split traffic with cookie‑based stickiness for accurate experiments.
Access control and input validation: Gate requests at the edge with allow/deny lists and protect forms against abuse.
Semantic URL rewrites: Serve user‑ and SEO‑friendly URLs without changing origin code.
Key Cloudlets and where they fit
Application Load Balancer: Intelligent, scalable traffic management and global server load balancing across hybrid environments. It can automatically detect load and route to the optimal data source while maintaining custom routing and session behavior. Learn more in the Application Load Balancer Cloudlet product brief.
Visitor Prioritization: Probability‑ and percentage‑based gating that meters entry to origin and your waiting room during peak events, decreasing abandonment. See the Visitor Prioritization Cloudlet product brief.
Virtual Waiting Room: A front‑end “shock absorber” that queues visitors when your origin reaches a configured capacity limit, protecting critical flows like checkout, donations, subscriptions, and registrations.
API Prioritization: Define which API calls (for example, JSON/XML resources) are prioritized and allowed to reach origin under high demand, while non‑priority segments can receive an alternate static experience (for example, from Akamai NetStorage). See the API Prioritization Cloudlet product brief.
Edge Redirector: Execute large volumes of redirects at the edge to reduce origin hits and simplify marketing/IT operations.
Phased Release: Gradually move a percentage of visitors to a new deployment and retain the ability to roll back immediately.
Audience Segmentation: Create stable test populations at the edge using cookie‑based stickiness for A/B and multivariate tests.
Request Control: Provide conditional access with edge‑level allow/deny lists by IP and geography.
Forward Rewrite: Generate clean, SEO‑friendly URLs by rewriting requests at the edge.
Input Validation: Validate incoming form fields and values, limit submissions/attempts per user, and apply penalty actions when limits are reached.
Implementing a virtual waiting room or traffic queue
Use Visitor Prioritization or Virtual Waiting Room:
Choose your approach:
Use Visitor Prioritization to meter traffic by configurable percentages and probabilities so some users continue to the origin while others enter a waiting room.
Use Virtual Waiting Room to activate queuing when origin capacity hits a defined threshold, protecting transaction flows.
Configure policies in Property Manager:
Set activation criteria (for example, capacity threshold or percentage gates).
Define priority segments (for example, authenticated users, critical journeys).
Customize a branded waiting‑room experience.
Test and deploy:
Validate policies in staging.
Enable gradually, monitor behavior, and adjust percentages/thresholds as needed.
Why choose Cloudlets over building your own waiting room? You get a proven, edge‑native solution that’s configurable, integrates with Akamai delivery, reduces engineering/maintenance overhead, and can be rolled out quickly to protect revenue during peak events.
Managing high‑volume redirects at the edge
Use Edge Redirector to centralize and run redirects on Akamai’s edge:
- Execute rules at the edge to avoid extra round trips and offload origin infrastructure.
- Let marketing and IT manage large redirect sets without code changes or custom systems.
- Version, test, and roll out policy updates safely.
Running canary deployments and phased releases
Use Phased Release for safe rollouts:
- Gradually route a percentage of users to new code or experiences.
- Maintain session stickiness and revert instantly if issues arise.
- Combine with Audience Segmentation for targeted cohorts and test fidelity.
Prioritizing API traffic during surges
Use API Prioritization to keep mission‑critical user flows responsive:
- Mark critical API calls for priority pass‑through to origin.
- Serve an alternate static experience for non‑priority segments to maintain usability and reduce load.
- Useful for native mobile and single‑page app back ends under flash‑sale, launch, or seasonal spikes.
Load balancing across hybrid and on‑prem environments
Use Application Load Balancer to unify traffic distribution:
- Balance across physical, virtual, and cloud‑hosted origins while honoring custom policies and session behavior.
- Detect load conditions and route to optimal data sources.
- Deliver fast, reliable global server load balancing on Akamai Cloud.
Fit for enterprise edge logic without custom code
Cloudlets provide policy‑driven edge capabilities that slot directly into your Akamai delivery workflow. They’re ideal when you want:
- Faster time to value without writing and maintaining custom edge code.
- Consistent operations via UI/API, versioning, and role‑based access.
- Proven patterns (waiting rooms, phased releases, redirects, load balancing) that scale globally.
Buying and getting started
Purchase Cloudlets individually from the Akamai Marketplace.
Provision and configure in Property Manager or via the Cloudlets API.
Associate policies with one or many properties, apply role‑based permissions, and roll out safely with version control.
Have questions or want help mapping Cloudlets to your environment? Contact our team.