[Infowarrior] - Akamai Releases Internet Health Reporting System

[Richard Forno]

June 7, 2007 - Akamai Introduces First-of-its-Kind, Real-Time View into
Health of the Internet


Company creates a virtual weather map of Internet conditions, measuring
attack traffic, network latency between major cities, traffic volume and
network performance

CAMBRIDGE, MA - June 7, 2007 - How healthy is the Internet? Akamai
Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) unveiled today a unique set of tools that
provide a view into the real-time wellbeing of the Internet.

Visit www.akamai.com/visualize to view how the Internet is performing at
this moment.

Operating the world's largest distributed computing platform for
accelerating online content and applications for today¹s most successful
businesses, Akamai has deployed over 25,000 servers in more than 750 cities
that are used by content providers to bypass the inherent bottlenecks that
exist as part of the Internet¹s infrastructure. Serving as a virtual
air-traffic controller for the billions of Web pages, streams, software
downloads, and application transactions traversing the Internet, Akamai is
providing the public ­ for the first time ­ with a visual understanding of
why some Web traffic may be slow, infected, or simply non-existent.

"Its easy to take for granted that the Internet will always be on, and
always working," said Tom Leighton, co-founder and chief scientist of
Akamai. ³Reality shows us that there are many factors, on any given day,
degrading the Internet¹s performance. Some are malicious, and some are the
result of the incredible amount of content being requested at any one time.
Akamai is in a unique position to monitor the Internet in real-time,
identifying where and when the Internet is being taxed. The services we
provide, leveraging this data, are geared toward helping our customers
overcome the challenges of the Internet so they can effectively conduct
business online."

Akamai is introducing three distinct data visualization tools, each with
interactive settings, allowing visitors to customize the data based on
interest. Continues Leighton, "Although there is a great deal more that we
monitor daily on the Internet on behalf of our customers, these tools are a
first for giving the public a view into the Internet¹s growth, stability and
potential trouble spots."

VISUALIZING THE INTERNET

Real-Time Web Monitor
http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/dataviz1.html (move the ³zoom window²
to see greater detail.)

Offering three modes of visualizing the Internet in real-time, the Real-Time
Web Monitor identifies the global regions with the greatest attack traffic,
cities with the slowest Web connections (latency), and geographic areas with
the most Web traffic (traffic density).

    * Attack Traffic
      Akamai displays real-time attack traffic by geo-region (state,
province or country). This visualization is based on data collected that
includes the number of connections that are attempted, the source IP
address, the destination IP address and the source and destination ports.
The packets captured are generally from automated scanning trojans and worms
looking to infect new computers scanning randomly generated IP addresses.
       
    * Latency/Speed
      Akamai measures network latency between most major cities via
regularly automated tests. These tests consist of web connections and
downloads, as well as Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) pings.
Displayed in this interface are the current top ten worst performing cities.
Absolute Latency depicts the current latency of a given city, while Relative
Latency depicts the differential between the city's current latency and its
historical average latency.
       
    * Network Traffic
      Akamai monitors the amount of data being requested and delivered by
geography at any given moment in time. Displayed in this interface are the
top ten regions with the current highest traffic volumes.


Network Performance Comparison
http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/dataviz2.html
Akamai's route optimization technology is designed to improve the
performance and reliability of dynamic applications and content delivered
over the Internet. The Network Performance Comparison tool illustrates how
Akamai identifies the fastest and most reliable path available between an
Akamai edge server and an enterprise's origin data center to retrieve
dynamic content. To utilize this tool, select a pair of cities to compare
Akamai versus the public Internet.

Visualizing Akamai
http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/dataviz3.html
Akamai handles, at times, 20 percent of the world's total Web traffic,
providing a unique view into what's happening on the Web. This tool provides
insight into the world's online behavior at any given moment including how
much rich media is on the move, the sheer volume of data being requested,
the number and concentration of worldwide visitors, and average connection
speeds worldwide.

Net Usage Indices
These data visualization tools accompany Akamai's existing Net Usage Indices
measuring real-time online consumption of News, Retail and Music. All of the
indices are intended to provide unique insight into the massive cultural and
economic changes resulting from the ways people worldwide get news and
information and act as consumers online. The Akamai Net Usage Indices
measure Internet traffic dedicated to an aggregate set of Web sites,
monitoring consumption by continent, as well as the world as a whole.
Akamai's Indices do not release specific customer data, but show an
aggregate view of web traffic to the sites that Akamai supports. For each
Index, there is a downloadable widget available, such as the following for
News: http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/nui/news/widgets.html