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Akamai Reaches Farther Most of Akamai's revenues are recurring revenues from current customers, a fact that is driving Akamai to extend services and to increase the number of Akamai POPs around the world. All of this is good news for ISPs.
We last wrote about Akamai in early June ("Akamai Broadens Reach, Sweetens Pot for ISP Partners" by Lisa Phifer), when we decribed the complex global network of partnerships they had already built, and focused on the ISP side of the Akamai story by covering their offering for ISPs, Akamai's Accelerated Network Program (AANP). Akamai accelerates its customers' content, and provides ISPs with a Usenet feed as well as a cache on Akamai's Content Delivery Network (CDN). The article noted that, "According to Akamai, Usenet traffic is doubling in size every year. Offloading 12 Mbps of Usenet traffic onto the CyberStar satellite network will allow participating ISPs in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia to free terrestrial bandwidth now consumed by Usenet traffic. Using a broadcast medium to deliver Usenet is a win-win proposition for everyone involved." Akamai provides the hardware for free, requiring only that the ISP supply power, bandwidth, and occasional "hands and eye" support if the equipment itself fails. Akamai provides remote admin support. I am a portal Akamai around the world Another technology partner is 2Roam, a wireless content optimizer (the company is a CMGI investment). The general theme of Akamai's plan, going forward, seems to be to extend the reach and depth of Akamai services. Earl Galleher, said that 90% of Akamai's revenues are recurring revenues from existing customers, and that therefore customer service is a top priority of Akamai's. He noted that as soon as a sale is made, the customer is transferred from sales to customer service, whereas at some other companies, sales and customer service are handled by the same department. However, the fact that most revenue comes from current customers also explains the current strategy. Akamai is focusing on adding services to increase revenues from current customers (just as many ISPs are also trying to increase per-customer revenues). A reseller program for ISPs Akamai provides training and marketing support. Companies such as Earthstation Netaxs, Fastnet, Stargate, and ComStar.net (a.k.a Globix), all of which have many such clients, are Akamai Edge Network Exchange Partners. Companies can also resell portions of the Akamai product set. For example, in late June, Akamai announced its EdgeScape product which allows publishers to customize broadcast content so that, for example, news or sports events could be broadcast worldwide, but arrive in the language of the destination country. Akamai will extend the EdgeScape offering to enable the customization of wireless content, and to enable content to be optimized for the device on which the content is being received. Akamai announced that LoudCloud would be reselling EdgeScape. The NOCC End
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