IBM and Akamai Offer New Software to Easily Deploy On-Demand Applications
Software brings "click to deploy" capability to launch applications built on WebSphere® across the Akamai platform
Somers, NY and Cambridge, MA - December 11, 2003 - IBM and Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM) today announced new software that makes it easier to deploy Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Web applications built on IBM`s WebSphere software across Akamai`s global computing platform.
In May, IBM and Akamai announced a new joint solution - Akamai EdgeComputingSM powered by WebSphere - that combined Akamai`s EdgeComputing Service - a utility-like computing service for J2EE application delivery - with IBM`s market-leading WebSphere Internet infrastructure software. With the offering, WebSphere customers can use the Akamai global network to access and process Web applications fast and reliably, regardless of Internet failures.
The new software announced today enables the Akamai EdgeComputing powered by WebSphere solution to make effective use of WebSphere Studio development tools, creating a single environment so developers and application architects can easily deploy J2EE applications. The developer codes an application, simply clicks on deploy, and the infrastructure and capacity of Akamai`s global network are instantly available at the developer`s fingertips.
This capability minimizes many time-consuming steps for developers and application architects such as capacity planning, performance testing, debugging, tuning and finally, planning the amount of CPU, memory, and software licenses to provision for peak demand - a process that can slow down the creation of new applications needed for a business to respond rapidly to changes in the market.
The EdgeComputing powered by WebSphere service runs on Akamai`s globally distributed network of servers. It eliminates the need for enterprises to wait to deploy business solutions because infrastructure isn`t ready or affordable, or to risk over- or under-provisioning. EdgeComputing gives businesses on-demand scale, performance, and global reach - allowing enterprises to pay only for the capacity that they need, when and where they need it.
"The Akamai EdgeComputing powered by WebSphere service enables our customers to pay only for the computing resources they use, allowing them to focus on building profitable applications, rather than the distraction of coping when systems fail," said Partha Nageswaran, president, Trans-World Resources, an Akamai Solutions Integrator and Enterprise Application Solutions Provider. "The extension of the EdgeComputing service to include integration with WebSphere Studio will provide a much faster and far less complex way to deploy enterprise applications on the edge."
"As more and more business processes move to the Internet, developers are looking for a cheaper and faster way to develop and deploy the new applications that are needed for their business to respond rapidly to the market," said Bill Weihl, chief technology officer, Akamai. "The integration with WebSphere Studio extends the Akamai EdgeComputing environment to the developer desktop, giving developers the freedom to innovate and launch richer applications by taking advantage of EdgeComputing`s capacity and global infrastructure on demand."
"The integration of IBM WebSphere Studio and Akamai EdgeComputing results in a critical tool to help businesses respond rapidly to customer demands and market opportunity by giving them what they need, when they need it, with minimal technical effort," said Bob Sutor, director, WebSphere Software, IBM. "This simplifies the deployment environment for developers and enables companies to bring new applications online faster. EdgeComputing powered by WebSphere ensures that the computing resources needed are automatically available, anywhere in the world."
Developers can download a technical preview of this technology - EdgeComputing Toolkit for WebSphere Studio - for free on alphaWorks, IBM`s resource for emerging technology (www.ibm.com/alphaworks). It will be generally available in the first quarter of 2004 through IBM Global Services as well as through Akamai`s professional services group.
IBM is also offering previews of two other edge technologies on alphaWorks - one to extend WebSphere`s dynamic content caching to Akamai`s global EdgeSuite service, and another for creating Web applications optimized for the Akamai EdgeComputing service.
About WebSphere
WebSphere is the industry-leading Internet infrastructure software, or middleware, for creating, running and integrating e-business applications across a variety of computing platforms. Built on open standards such as J2EE, XML and the new Web services standards, and endowed with IBM`s core strengths of reliability, scalability and security, WebSphere server software and development tools are used by tens of thousands of customers. For more information: http://www.ibm.com/websphere
About Akamai
Akamai®—The Business Internet, is the world`s largest on demand distributed computing platform for conducting profitable e-business. Overcoming the inherent limitations of the Internet, Akamai`s services ensure a high performing, scalable, and secure environment for organizations to cost effectively extend and control their e-business infrastructure. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Akamai`s industry-leading services, matched with world-class customer care, are used by hundreds of today`s most successful enterprises and government agencies around the globe. For more information about the Akamai EdgeComputing service, visit http://www.akamai.com/en/html/services/edgecomputing.html.
Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai`s management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, unexpected increases in Akamai`s use of funds, lack of market acceptance of our services, failure to achieve incremental revenue growth, the effects of any attempts to intentionally disrupt our services or network by hackers or others, failure to have available sufficient transmission capacity, a failure of Akamai`s network infrastructure, and other factors that are discussed in the Company`s Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.
Contacts:
Laurie Friedman
IBM Media Relations
IBM
914-766-1299
laurie1@us.ibm.com
Caryn Brownell
Akamai Media Relations
Akamai Technologies Inc.
617-444-2524
caryn.brownell@akamai.com
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