CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
- Global average connection speeds up 1.8%, while global
average peak connection speeds drop 8.6%
- Europe continues to lead in
IPV6 adoption with eight of the top 10 countries
- DDoS attacks decrease by 20% quarter-over-quarter, but rise
27% year-over-year
- 11% of global connections are "4K ready"
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading provider
of cloud services for delivering, optimizing and securing online
content and business applications, today released its First
Quarter, 2014 State of the Internet Report. Based on data
gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform™, the report provides
insight into key global statistics such as connection speeds,
overall attack traffic, network connectivity/availability issues,
and traffic patterns across leading Web properties and digital
media providers.
The report also includes insight into NTP reflection and
WordPress XML-RPC pingback attacks, the status of IPv4
exhaustion and IPv6 adoption, and global 4K readiness.
Data and graphics from the First Quarter, 2014 State of the
Internet Report can be found on the Akamai State of the
Internet site and through the Akamai State of the Internet app for
iPads and iPhones.
Highlights from Akamai's First Quarter, 2014 State of the
Internet Report:
Global Average Connection Speeds and Global Broadband
Connectivity
The global average connection speed climbed
1.8% to continue its steady growth over recent quarters, and while
global average peak connection speeds dropped 8.6% in the first
quarter of 2014, year-over-year trends remained positive with a 13%
increase.
With the global average connection speed at 3.9 Mbps as of
quarter-end, it is expected that the measurement will surpass the 4
Mbps broadband threshold next quarter. In the first quarter, nine
of the top 10 countries/regions saw increases in average connection
speeds, including an 8% jump for first place South Korea (23.6 Mbps), which is now 9 Mbps
ahead of second place Japan (14.6
Mbps). Of the top 10 countries, only the Czech Republic experienced a decrease in
average connection speed, remaining in eighth place with a 1.9%
drop.
Year-over-year, global average connection speeds grew by 24% and
increases were seen in all but seven countries/regions. Growth
ranged from a low of 0.7% in Panama (2.6 Mbps) to a high of 196% in
Sudan (3.2 Mbps). South Korea showed a 145% increase from the
first quarter of 2013, a growth rate that nearly tripled
Ireland's 47% increase, which
ranked second in year-over-year growth among the top 10.
Increases in global average peak connection speeds during the
first quarter of 2014 ranged from 0.2% in Colombia (16.8 Mbps) to 76% in Sudan (13.4 Mbps). A total of 43 qualifying
countries/regions saw quarter-over-quarter increases in their
average peak connection speeds, whereas 92 qualifying
countries/regions saw declines.
The year-over-year story remains positive. Since the first
quarter of 2013, global average peak connection speeds increased
13%. Yearly growth rates among the top 10 countries/regions ranged
from 0.3% in Hong Kong (66 Mbps)
to an impressive 206% in Uruguay
(45.4 Mbps).
Global high broadband (>10 Mbps) adoption rates in the first
quarter improved by 9.4% quarter-over-quarter, climbing above the
20% mark for the first time, to 21%. Once again, all of the
countries/regions in the top 10 had high broadband adoption rates
of 30%, with South Korea (77%),
Japan (54%) and Switzerland (45%) topping the list. The
year-over-year growth rate was 65%, with six of the top 10
countries/regions seeing increases of 50% or more.
The global broadband (>4 Mbps) adoption rate grew a nominal
1.7% from the fourth quarter of 2013 to reach 56% in the first
quarter of 2014. Of the countries/regions that qualified, 76 had
higher broadband adoption rates this quarter – growth ranged from
0.2% in Canada (82% adoption) to
1,208% in Sudan (21% adoption).
Since the first quarter of 2013, global broadband adoption rates
grew by 24%, with extremely large year-over-year upticks seen in
Kenya (1,100% to 4.9% adoption),
Uruguay (3,298% to 34% adoption)
and Sudan (5,926%).
"While there continues to be room for improvement in high
broadband adoption and average peak connection speeds in some areas
of the world, the trends we're seeing remain very positive," said
David Belson, the author of the
report. "Steady year-over-year growth suggests that a strong,
global foundation is being built for the enjoyment of next
generation content and services like 4K video and increasingly
connected homes and offices, and that connectivity will continue to
evolve to support the growing demands these emerging technologies
will place on the Internet."
4K Readiness
With 4K (Ultra HD) adaptive bitrate
streams generally requiring between 10 - 20 Mbps of bandwidth, the
new "4K Readiness" metric presented for the first time in the
First Quarter, 2014 State of the Internet Report highlights
the percentage of connections to Akamai at speeds above 15 Mbps,
with the goal of identifying candidate geographies most likely to
be able to sustain such streams. The findings do not account for
other "readiness" factors, including availability of 4K-encoded
content or 4K-capable televisions and players.
Globally, 11% of connections were at speeds of 15 Mbps or above
in the first quarter. Seven of the top 10 countries/regions on the
4K readiness list overlapped with those on the global high
broadband connectivity list. South
Korea led the list with 60% 4K readiness while Japan had 32% of its connections at that level
in the first quarter. Of the top 10, the Czech Republic had the lowest level of 4K
readiness with 17%. Overall, 47 countries/regions qualified for
inclusion.
Attack Traffic and Security
Akamai maintains a
distributed set of unadvertised agents deployed across the Internet
to log connection attempts that the company classifies as attack
traffic. Based on the data collected by these agents, Akamai is
able to identify the top countries from which attack traffic
originates, as well as the top ports targeted by these attacks. It
is important to note, however, that the originating country as
identified by the source IP address may not represent the nation in
which an attacker resides.
During the first quarter of 2014, Akamai observed attack traffic
originating from 194 unique countries/regions – six more than the
fourth quarter of 2013. China was
again responsible for originating the most attacks, but dropped
slightly from 43% in the fourth quarter of 2013 to 41% in the first
quarter of 2014. The United States
followed in second place, but also saw a decline from 19% to 11%,
and Indonesia saw a slight uptick
from 5.7% to 6.8% to secure third place. Overall, the concentration
of attacks decreased significantly as compared to the fourth
quarter of 2013, with the top 10 countries/regions originating 75%
of observed attacks, down from 88% in the prior quarter.
Port 445 (Microsoft-DS) remained the most targeted port in the
first quarter of 2014, but the associated attack traffic volume was
down to 14% of observed attack traffic (from 30% in the third
quarter of 2013). Conversely, Port 5000 (Universal Plug &
Play/UPnP) saw a significant increase during the quarter – from
less than a tenth of a percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 to 12%
this quarter – an increase of more than 100 times. Port 23 (Telnet)
ranked third with 8.7% of observed attack traffic.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack Traffic
In
addition to observations on attack traffic, the State of the
Internet Report includes insight into DDoS attacks based on
reports from Akamai's customers. The number of DDoS attacks
reported in the first quarter of 2014 declined to 283 from 346 in
the last quarter of 2013. This represents a 20% decrease
quarter-over-quarter and a 27% increase year-over-year.
Most regions of the world saw a decline in reported DDoS attacks
during the first quarter of 2014. The Americas continued to account
for approximately 49% (139) of all attacks, followed by the
Asia Pacific region with 31% (87)
of attacks and Europe,
Middle East and Africa (EMEA) receiving the remaining 20% (57)
of DDoS traffic. The enterprise sector saw a 49%
quarter-over-quarter reduction in attack traffic, while public
sector attack traffic grew by 34%, primarily attributable to
attacks against government targets within Singapore.
IPv4 and IPv6
In the first quarter of 2014, more than
795 million unique IPv4 addresses from 240 countries/regions
connected to the Akamai Intelligent Platform. This was 1.6% more
than in the fourth quarter of 2013 and 7.8% more than a year prior.
Quarterly growth was seen in six of the top 10 countries/regions.
Brazil was again a standout with
12% and 50% of quarterly and yearly growth, respectively.
European countries continued to lead in IPv6 adoption, taking
eight of the top 10 slots. Belgium
grew nearly 200% quarter-over-quarter, jumping to first place with
14% of its traffic over IPv6. The United
States and Peru were the
only two countries from the Americas within the top 10, while
Japan fell out of the top 10,
leaving the Asia Pacific region
unrepresented within the group.
The report also lists the top 20 network providers based on
their number of IPv6 requests made to Akamai during the first
quarter. The highest request volumes came from cable and wireless
providers in the United States.
Verizon Wireless had the highest percentage (45%) of requests over
IPv6, while 12 other providers also had more than 10% of their
requests to Akamai over IPv6 during the first quarter. European
providers were also heavily represented, including three providers
from Belgium with strong showings.
KDDI (Japan) and Telekom Malaysia
were the only two providers to represent the Asia Pacific region, while Telefonica del
Peru was the only South American
provider on the list.
Mobile Connectivity
In the first quarter of 2014,
average mobile connection speeds ranged from 1.0 Mbps in
Argentina to 14.7 Mbps in
South Korea. Though the latter was
the only country/region with average mobile connection speeds above
the 10 Mbps high-broadband threshold, 20 countries/regions had
average connection speeds above the 4 Mbps threshold. A total of 56
countries/regions qualified for inclusion in the mobile section.
Note that starting with the First Quarter, 2014 State of the
Internet Report, mobile connectivity is being aggregated at a
country level, rather than at a provider level.
Average peak mobile connection speeds among qualifying countries
spanned a broad range, from 114.2 Mbps in Australia down to just 5.0 Mbps in
Iran. In total, 43 countries
showed average peak connection speeds above 10 Mbps.
The State of the Internet Report now includes a broadband
adoption statistic within the Mobile Connectivity section. This
quarter, Ukraine had the highest
level of mobile broadband adoption, with 89% of mobile connections
to Akamai from the country at speeds above 4 Mbps.
About the Akamai State of the Internet Report
Each
quarter, Akamai publishes a "State of the Internet" report. This
report includes data gathered from across the Akamai Intelligent
Platform about attack traffic, broadband adoption, mobile
connectivity and other relevant topics concerning the Internet and
its usage, as well as trends seen in this data over time. To learn
more and to access the archive of past reports, please visit
www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet. To download the figures from the
First Quarter, 2014 State of the Internet Report, please
visit:
http://wwwns.akamai.com/soti/soti_q114_figures.zip
About Akamai
Akamai® is the leading
provider of cloud services for delivering, optimizing and securing
online content and business applications. At the core of the
Company's solutions is the Akamai Intelligent Platform™ providing
extensive reach, coupled with first class reliability, security,
visibility and expertise. Akamai removes the complexities of
connecting the increasingly mobile world, supporting 24/7 consumer
demand, and enabling enterprises to securely leverage the cloud. To
learn more about how Akamai is accelerating the pace of innovation
in a hyperconnected world, please visit www.akamai.com or
blogs.akamai.com, and follow @Akamai on Twitter.
Contacts:
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Tom Barth
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Media
Relations
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Investor
Relations
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617-444-2987
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617-274-7130
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cnichols@akamai.com
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tbarth@akamai.com
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SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.