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Application acceleration gains new stature as packet networks dominate most media

An application's performance and reliability actually project the competency and quality perceptions of the brands of those corporations behind the applications.
Written by Dana Gardner, Contributor

My most recent sponsored BriefingsDirect B2B informational podcast tackles issues of application acceleration and performance management through a discussion with Akamai Chief Scientist and co-founder Tom Leighton. Akamai is a market leading application performance services provider based in my hometown of Cambridge, Mass.

From my 30-minute discussion with Prof. Leighton, I gained a much better appreciation of the need for reducing business risk with network optimization and application performance insurance, which is what Akamai's portfolio, in effect, offers. Full disclosure: Akamai is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect B2B informational podcasts.

As enterprises and online businesses do more of their commerce and processes via Web applications, Web 2.0 online business services, and via IP-based media, those applications' performance and reliability actually project the competency and quality perceptions of the brands of those corporations behind the applications.

As the demand economy expands the use of Internet activities, the quality of the cloud becomes the quality of the brand -- unless measures are taken to guarantee service levels that outstrip the general nature of the global internet fabric.

Akamai, a pioneer during the content delivery networks era of the 1990s (making Victoria Secrets webcasts not crash, for example), is expanding its service level guaranteer role to include application performance optimization and media delivery acceleration tuned to specific vertical requirements. This is a fast-burgeoning market, as Wall Street has taken notice, given that IP telephony, RFID, IPTV, and even (near and dear to me) podcasting all gain in prominence and mass usage.

Application performance services provide an interesting topic that impacts the bottom lines of more companies every day.

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