What the Channel Needs to Know About Akamai Connected Cloud
With Linode under its belt, find out how Akamai is working with partners via its new platform.
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Distributed and edge computing, in and of themselves, are not new or revelatory topics. But Akamai, with Connected Cloud, is making some interesting moves in these areas that do set it apart from the crowd, says Dave McCarthy, vice president of research firm IDC’s worldwide infrastructure practice.
“Akamai Connected Cloud is unique in that it is designed with a distributed computing mindset,” McCarthy tells Channel Futures. “That’s not surprising since Akamai is a leader in content delivery networks, so they understand the importance of placing infrastructure close to users.”
Akamai Connected Cloud also marks a “departure” from the typical cloud computing mindset, McCarthy says. The usual setup relies on delivering services from data centers that, for users in Tier 2 or Tier 3 markets, often end up being quite far away.
“In recent years, customers have begun to realize limitations with this approach,” McCarthy said.
That’s because the distance between a data center and an end user can lead to performance issues — think latency and jitter. The closer a data center is to a user, the better the outcomes, “which is why you see a lot of interest in edge computing,” McCarthy says.
Akamai Connected Cloud addresses these problems in specific markets. Before we jump to the next slide, consider McCarthy’s thoughts:
“While the cloud providers have begun to build more metro deployment locations, they have a long way to catch up to the reach of Akamai’s network.”
Think of Akamai Connected Cloud as an avenue for augmenting customers’ cloud computing environments — not replacing them (as tends to be the case when it comes to any non-hyperscaler cloud provider).
“Akamai Connected Cloud does not have the same breadth of services as AWS, Azure and Google, so it won’t be appropriate for every workload,” says IDC’s McCarthy. “However, it does include the essential compute, storage and managed databases that are needed by many general purpose workloads. It will be attractive to customers that are looking for a simplified way of building and managing cloud applications.”
Gartner’s Brandon Medford, principal analyst, agrees.
“Akamai Connected Cloud is not best viewed as directly competitive to the broad scope of offerings from cloud infrastructure and platform services providers like AWS, Azure and GCP,” Medford tells Channel Futures. “It would not be a strong fit to the entire range of use cases enterprises require of cloud in that context.”
The potential for differentiation, however, “lies in its suitability for latency and performance-sensitive workloads derived from integration with Akamai’s infrastructure and platform,” Medford says.
Akamai Connected Cloud, he adds, “is a good fit for applications that must communicate between multiple cloud environments.”
That’s also part of what makes Akamai’s announcement about its data egress prices (more on that in a bit) so critical, he says. Overall, Medford adds, “I expect that Connected Cloud will further the conversation of new use cases and application topographies.”
In introducing Connected Cloud, Akamai emphasized its new data transfer pricing, intended to result in “significantly discounted egress rates relative to the hyperscalers and alternative cloud providers.”
In other words, moving out of Akamai Connected Cloud will cost less than moving out of AWS, Azure, GCP or some other vendor environments. This is a big deal in the cloud world. Bringing an organization’s data into the Big 3 (among other) clouds costs nothing. Getting it out is expensive — migrating to another vendor becomes an “unbelievable, big part of their bill,” Akamai’s Michels said on Feb. 10. On its own, Linode offered “fairly aggressive pricing,” Michels added. Now that pricing is getting more aggressive because Akamai has extensive network capacity, throughput and backbone. The company “bringing CDN-like economics to data transfer,” Michels said.
Look for “compelling egress rates that will significantly reduce” enterprises’ cloud spend, Michels said.
IDC’s McCarthy says Akamai’s new data-egress pricing represents a welcome change for organizations, especially in light of inflation and budgetary pressures.
“As cloud becomes a larger percentage of overall IT spend, it is getting more scrutiny,” he says. “In a recent IDC survey, 64% of organizations reported spending more on cloud than they had budgeted. A significant portion of this is related to data egress costs. While this has been a growing concern over the last year or two, the current economic climate has thrown fuel on the fire. CIOs are more receptive than ever to change providers if it can reduce their monthly bills.”
Gartner’s Medford calls Akamai’s new egress pricing “critical.”
“The architecture of edge use-cases requires that the price scale [is] more sustainable than is typical of egress pricing at [hyperscale] providers.”
On the next slide, we examine where Akamai is debuting Connected Cloud and the company’s plans for expansion.
This year, Akamai will launch Connected Cloud in Asia-Pacific via four data centers: in Chennai, Osaka, Jakarta and Auckland.
Akamai has 11 data centers now and the new additions will connect to its backbone, creating a more distributed edge network. The company is “actively developing” 13 more data centers across the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, and other parts of Asia, Akamai’s Michels said. Three of those will be available in the United States and Europe by the end of the second quarter, according to Akamai.
Meanwhile, Akamai also is introducing distributed sites. The company says it will roll those out in 50 difficult-to-reach or underserved cities this year. The distributed sites will feature full-stack virtual machine and container capabilities, Michels said, and connect to Akamai’s network.
“The new sites will contain cloud computing services acquired from Linode, and will become the template for additional core sites that Akamai plans to roll out across the globe,” Akamai said in its press release. (“Core sites” is what Akamai calls its data centers.)
On the next slide, read what analysts have to say about the company’s strategy.
All in all, Akamai’s strategy for targeting regions the hyperscalers typically do not looks like a solid one.
“Regarding underserved markets, customers are looking for more options to deploy cloud applications locally,” says IDC’s McCarthy. “While the major cloud providers are building more local sites, they will start with the major markets and it will be some time before second- and third-tier markets are addressed. Akamai is already in those markets, which gives them a head start.”
Medford provides a small note of clarification, though. During the Feb. 10 media briefing, Akamai executives hyped the company’s “core sites” — or data centers — announcements. That prompted Channel Futures to ask analysts what’s genuinely different about Akamai’s cloud tactics. Here’s what Gartner’s Medford says about Akamai’s data center news:
“They are distinct from some of Akamai’s other points of presence in that they will be locations where the full set of Connected Cloud offerings will be available. They are not distinct from other independent cloud computing providers except insofar as their integration to Akamai.”
On that note, Akamai also talked up its new compliance with standards including PCI, HIPAA and ISO 27001. Frankly, this isn’t something to get too excited about, since every cloud computing provider has to meet specific regulatory standards.
“The importance of compliance standards is more as table stakes for relevant organizations and workloads than it is as a differentiator,” Medford says.
McCarthy agrees.
“The compliance news is really just a catch up to the other providers. [Akamai] most likely didn’t need this for their CDN business, but it becomes more important as they move into general-purpose workloads.”
Next up, we get into the all-important channel aspect of Akamai Connected Cloud. The company is calling its new initiative the Qualified Computing Partner Program.
For now, the Qualified Computing Partner Program for Akamai Connected Cloud takes aim “almost exclusively” at ISVs.
“Linode historically operated a partner program geared toward MSPs,” explains Matt Berk, vice president of customer operations at Akamai. Berk oversees partner-related efforts at the company. “We’re in the process of integrating some of the tenets of that partner program into the [global] Akamai program. … The Qualified Computing Partner Program is not … well-suited for traditional MSPs and SIs.”
Akamai’s Michels, on Feb. 10, put it this way:
“We’re going to have to rely heavily on partners to start filling in and … to solve cloud-related challenges for our customers.”
The types of partners he cited include transcoding, WebRTC and “even traditional SaaS” experts. They’ll all be required to certify on Akamai Connected Cloud before they develop requisite services and applications.
The channel program itself “will be multicloud compatible, with no requirements to lock into Akamai Cloud exclusively,” Michels said, adding, “If customers can’t easily port us to another cloud, we’ve done something fundamentally wrong.”
Berk says the Qualified Computing Partner Program augments Akamai’s other channel work. MSPs, including those who joined from Linode, still resell the company’s services under a different umbrella.
“We have not yet taken all of the components of the Linode partner program and integrated them into the historic Akamai partner program,” Berk says. However, he notes, Akamai does “want to see those drive together as one.”
There is no set time frame for bringing MSPs deeper into the Connected Cloud fold. Akamai continues to integrate Linode partners. There are “certain elements we want to make sure are enterprise-ready,” Berk says.
And that raises the question — will Akamai indeed honor its promise to retain Linode’s focus on small and medium-size businesses? (Akamai, as a global firm eyeing large organizations, invited partner concerns with the Linode purchase.)
Berk says yes.
“We want to make sure as we mature these programs, that we continue to support the [SMB] customer base that’s helped us get here,” he says.
In the meantime, the Qualified Computing Partner Program can offer some trickle-down benefits to MSPs. As ISVs develop solutions for Akamai’s Connected Cloud, MSPs can bring those to customers’ attention and provision them accordingly.
“If you are part of legacy Linode and you’re an MSP, these are some of the solutions you know are certified on this platform you can offer to this customer base,” Berk said.
Look for more Akamai partner news for MSPs and others later this year, the company tells Channel Futures. In fact, here’s a hint from Berk:
“System integrators are going to be a huge component of Akamai’s success. … You’re going to see a lot of focus from Akamai in 2023 in building a stronger ecosystem of SIs.”
Berk says yes.
“We want to make sure as we mature these programs, that we continue to support the [SMB] customer base that’s helped us get here,” he says.
In the meantime, the Qualified Computing Partner Program can offer some trickle-down benefits to MSPs. As ISVs develop solutions for Akamai’s Connected Cloud, MSPs can bring those to customers’ attention and provision them accordingly.
“If you are part of legacy Linode and you’re an MSP, these are some of the solutions you know are certified on this platform you can offer to this customer base,” Berk said.
Look for more Akamai partner news for MSPs and others later this year, the company tells Channel Futures. In fact, here’s a hint from Berk:
“System integrators are going to be a huge component of Akamai’s success. … You’re going to see a lot of focus from Akamai in 2023 in building a stronger ecosystem of SIs.”
About a year after buying independent cloud computing vendor Linode, Akamai has debuted its first major, consequent platform: Akamai Connected Cloud.
The release represents Akamai’s most public-facing step when it comes to integrating Linode. In terms of strategy, the $900 million acquisition in early 2022 looked a lot like the pending Broadcom-VMware deal — two companies of very different sizes with different focus and expertise joining forces.
Recall that Akamai made its name as a content delivery network provider; it still offers that service, with security and, thanks to Linode, edge computing. And while Akamai targets large organizations, Linode positioned itself as an alternative to the hyperscalers – Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform – for developers and smaller managed service providers. Last year, Akamai promised to retain Linode’s focus on those partners and their customers. Akamai Connected Cloud makes good on that, to some extent. We explore what we mean by that in the slideshow above.
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Edge & Cloud Platform
When it comes to the official description for Connected Cloud, Akamai’s press release calls it a “distributed edge and cloud platform for computing, security and content delivery.”
In a Feb. 10 briefing with media, Shawn Michels, vice president of product management at Akamai, said Akamai Connected Cloud “builds on what Akamai is known for: global scale, reach, capacity, availability … providing additional infrastructure services.” On the whole, there are some unique (and some not-so-unique) angles involved, which Channel Futures discusses in the slideshow above with analysts from IDC and Gartner.
Finally, Channel Futures also talks with Akamai’s Matt Berk, vice president of customer operations, about Akamai Connected Cloud and its channel impact. It’s not a conventional approach, at least for now. As such, independent software vendors, MSPs, system integrators and others interested in Akamai Connected Cloud will want to understand the nuances.
See the slideshow above to dive into the details on Akamai Connected Cloud and what it means for the channel.
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