CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Akamai
Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading provider of cloud
services for delivering, optimizing and securing online content and
business applications, today introduced several new capabilities to
the company's Web Performance Solutions. Available now and known as
the SaaS Provider Option, these new features and capabilities are
designed to allow SaaS providers to use Akamai's pioneering web
application optimization and performance solutions in a manner more
closely aligned to how SaaS providers run their businesses.
Akamai's Web Performance Solutions are already widely in use by
SaaS providers around the globe. For example, 18 of the top 20, and
27 of the top 50 SaaS providers trust Akamai to provide
enterprise-grade reliability, industry-leading application
acceleration and optimization, and the security required to protect
SaaS applications from DDoS attacks and data theft.
With the introduction of the SaaS Provider Option, Akamai is
delivering new capabilities intended to address the unique
technical and business requirements that SaaS providers face when
delivering applications to global users via the Internet.
The SaaS Provider Option enables SaaS Providers to more rapidly
on-board new customers, reduce operational costs, speed
time-to-market, leverage SSL in a scalable manner, and gain deeper
customer insights. Greater business flexibility and efficiency will
be critical for SaaS providers given that, according to IDC, by
2018, over $1 of every $5 spent on packaged software, and over
$1 of every $4 spent on applications, will be consumed via
the cloud; further, about 30% of all new business software
purchases will be of service-enabled software, and cloud software
will constitute about 20.5% of all software sold and about 19.0% of
all applications spending.[1]
One early user of the SaaS Provider Option is Xero. As a global
leader in online accounting software Xero provides an intuitive,
easy-to-use cloud accounting platform that gives small businesses
the real-time financial insights they need to make smart business
decisions anywhere, anytime. Xero is positioned for strong
global growth and passed $100M in
annualized committed monthly revenue recently.
"From day one, Xero always aspired to be a truly global SaaS
business," explained Paul Rushworth,
Xero's Head Platform Infrastructure Architect. "We knew that we
needed a Content Delivery Network solution that could match our
scale ambitions, and have the global network that we required."
The SaaS Provider Option is designed to provide value in three
distinct areas:
- Faster Provisioning – Decreasing the amount of time
required to spin up new customers is directly related to reducing
operational costs and decreasing time-to-market. Faster
provisioning is designed to help SaaS providers achieve these
goals. Accomplished through a new set of open APIs, the SaaS
Provider Option is intended to help rapidly and easily onboard new
customers as well as leverage SSL in a highly scalable manner.
- Granular Reporting – The ability for SaaS providers to
troubleshoot any potential performance or reliability issues, and
provide customer‑specific value confirmation to their customers is
important to achieving overall customer satisfaction. SaaS
providers can now gain the necessary deep reporting visibility and
insight into each of their SaaS customers' experience to make this
a reality. Reports are updated automatically as new customers are
provisioned, offering SaaS providers an always up-to-date picture
of their business. .
- User-based Billing – SaaS providers can now take
advantage of a first-of-its-kind user-based billing model for
Akamai services. The user-based billing model is an optional unit
of measure, which enables SaaS providers to align their consumption
of Akamai's Web Performance Solutions with their user-based
business model.
Another innovative company taking advantage of the capabilities
introduced in the SaaS Provider option is Market Logic. They use
the SaaS model to deliver an insights platform for companies to
systematically use past research in future marketing decisions.
According to Olaf Lenzmann, Market
Logic CTO, "In addition to the performance and reliability benefits
offered by Akamai's Web Performance Solutions, the new SaaS
Provider Option provides a number of benefits directly related to
how we do business. Specifically, the ability to quickly and easily
add new customers, with the click of the mouse, offers the agility
companies like ours want in the cloud era."
"Consumers of SaaS applications expect their applications to be
accessible, perform well, and be as secure as possible. Akamai has
been delivering on these requirements for SaaS providers and their
customers for several years now," said Mike
Afergan, senior vice president and general manager, Web
Experience Business Unit, Akamai. "With our new SaaS Provider
Option, Akamai is combining the performance, optimization and
security capabilities for which the company is well known with new
capabilities designed specifically to help our SaaS customers run
their businesses more efficiently."
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 unmatched 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.
[1] IDC, Worldwide SaaS and Cloud Software 2014–2018 Forecast
and 2013 Vendor Shares (Document #249834, July 31 2014)
Contacts:
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Rob Morton
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Tom Barth
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Media
Relations
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Investor
Relations
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617-444-3641
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617-274-7130
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rmorton@akamai.com
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tbarth@akamai.com
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SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.