From a CDN to an enterprise partner providing cloud optimization
services, Akamai is positioning itself strategically to leverage
the new world of clouds. In this emerging world of clouds, Akamai
is eyeing India as a huge opportunity, as broadband connections go
up, coupled with a fast rise in the growth of Internet traffic. In
an exclusive interview with Srikanth RP, Paul Sagan, CEO, Akamai
Technologies shares his perspective on why India remains one of the
hottest markets for Akamai, the significance of IPv6, and why
organizations need to have a security strategy for mobile
devices
2010 was the first USD 1 billion year for Akamai. What
are your plans for India?
India as a market is about to take off in a huge way. Internet
traffic has doubled over the last two years. This is the highest
growth we have seen so far, in the last six years. We are also
increasingly seeing global Internet traffic from mobile devices
picking up in a huge way. Today, the Internet is the first place
that people go to whenever they want access to relevant
information. This is seen more so in the case of emergencies. The
mobile devices have accelerated the process of accessing the
Internet.
From a negligible percentage, this has already become close to 10
percent of the overall Internet traffic. India is already one of
the fastest growing markets for mobile devices, and as this base
grows, we can expect a further rise in Internet traffic. The launch
of 3G services by some telecom service providers in India will also
lead to huge growth in traffic. For a company focused on optimizing
the performance of the Internet, this growth augurs well for
us.
For Akamai, India is a strategic market. It is the second largest
office outside the United States and one of the most important hubs
for engineering, network operations, product management, sales and
marketing and business operations. The Indian arm of Akamai is
involved in developing innovative solutions for global use. Our
goal is to make Internet websites perform better. We have a massive
opportunity as there are a huge number of Indian companies who are
taking their businesses online.
In your view, does the growing mobile Internet activity
pose a new security threat for enterprises?
While the percentage is small, we have seen attack traffic
emanating from mobile devices. Unlike PCs, mobile devices are
always connected. These devices are also vulnerable as the same
kind of security standards that are available to us in the PC world
is not at the same level in the mobile world. From a scale and
volume potential, the probability of mobile devices being used as
hosts to attack is huge. Mobile devices can be a new front for
attackers in the future.
What is the significance of IPv6 and what is the
opportunity for Akamai?
IP addresses represent the equivalent of phone numbers on the
Internet. With the expected shortage of IPV4 addresses, the need
for organizations to transition to IPV6 is critical. We understand
that as the transition happens over the next few years,
organizations will take their own time to gradually upgrade their
networks. For customers who are running on IPV4, we will do the
translation so that in the future, our customers do not have a
problem like Y2K. This translation service will run in the cloud,
so that we can do it on the fly.
About Author
An award-winning journalist with more than 14 years of experience, Srikanth RP is Senior Associate Editor with InformationWeek India. Srikanth is passionate about writing on topics which clearly show the business impact of technology.
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