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Akamai lands PlayStation, Wii networks

Akamai has added two heavy hitters to its customer roster. On Tuesday, Akamai's Japan unit said that its technology will be adopted as a content delivery platform for Sony's PlayStation Network, an online service for the PlayStation 3.
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

Akamai has added two heavy hitters to its customer roster.

On Tuesday, Akamai's Japan unit said that its technology will be adopted as a content delivery platform for Sony's PlayStation Network, an online service for the PlayStation 3. At the same time, Akamai added that it will also be the content delivery platform for the game content for Nintendo's Wii.

Given that downloads from Nintendo and Sony are likely to be large the gaming tandem could be among Akamai's largest customers in short order. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Akamai's contracts are typically a year or longer and commit a customer to a minimum monthly level of usage. Customers also pay for actual usage above that minimum. It would stand to reason that if the Nintendo and Sony online gaming networks take off Akamai would benefit.

Akamai's technology allows customers to cache content by region to speed up downloads. It also maps the Internet across 20,000 servers globally to handle traffic spikes. No customer accounted for more than 10 percent of Akamai's revenue in 2005, but Microsoft broke that threshold in 2003 and 2004. Akamai currently operates Microsoft's download site, counts Apple and McAfee as customers and powers the relaunched CNBC.com.

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