Akamai ramps Xero's SaaS speed

New Zealand-based financial software company Xero has chosen Akamai for the deployment of a new web accelerator, in a move that dramatically increases the performance speed of its online accounting services.

(Going nowhere fast image by YtseJam Photography, CC 2.0)

Xero has reported speed improvements of over 200 per cent in Australia and New Zealand, with an average 180 per cent speed bump globally, after deploying the Akamai web accelerator in conjunction with its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) accounting platform.

Previously, Xero had used local servers positioned throughout Australia and New Zealand to manage data traffic with no acceleration technology attached. According to infrastructure manager for Xero, Paul Rushworth, the roll out of the Akamai technology took "around two weeks, with most of the time spent in testing". Once testing was completed the implementation of the accelerator was put in place within a matter of hours, said Rushworth.

Xero provides its SaaS accounting platform to personal and business customers globally. It has also recently signed a deal that will see its software offered to over 450,000 ANZ Bank customers.

Xero CEO Rod Drury has said that the addition of the new web acceleration technology will reduce downtime for its customers.