Akamai Expands HTTP/2 Deployment

Akamai Technologies announced that it is now "..actively working with more than 150 customers to deliver HTTP/2-enabled websites and is expanding its HTTP/2 program to all customers using qualifying products to deliver TLS encrypted web content.

HTTP/2 represents the first major update to the HTTP network protocol in nearly 20 years. Although websites have dramatically evolved during this time, HTTP, the underlying protocol of the Web, has not. Through features and capabilities such as multiplexing and concurrency, header compression, server push, support for the latest cipher suites, and an overall reduction in development complexity, HTTP/2 is intended to significantly improve the performance and security/privacy of today’s Web.

More than 70 percent of requests on Akamai’s CDN currently come from HTTP/2 compliant browsers; however, some older browser versions will continue to be used for the foreseeable future. Therefore, Akamai’s implementation of HTTP/2 has been designed to use real-time network and end-user intelligence to dynamically apply the appropriate performance optimizations to ensure the best performance for each user. In addition, we believe Akamai is well positioned to offer the tools and intelligence required to take full advantage of the move to HTTP/2. For example, easy‑to‑use, self-service and highly granular configurability allows customers to control the deployment of HTTP/2, while built-in monitoring and reporting helps measure the impact"

HTTP/2 attempts to solve many of the shortcomings and inflexibilities of HTTP/1.1. Its many benefits include:

• Multiplexing and concurrency: Several requests can be sent in rapid succession on the same TCP connection, and responses can be received out of order - eliminating the need for multiple connections between the client and the server
   
• Stream dependencies: the client can indicate to the server which of the resources are more important than the others
   
• Header compression: HTTP header size is drastically reduced
   
• Server push: The server can send resources the client has not yet requested

See "Akamai Helps Drive Adoption Of Faster And More Secure Web Protocol" - here.

[Technavio]: 33% CAGR for Transparent Caching Market 2015-2019

A new report by Yechnavio finds that the "global transparent caching market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 33% from 2015-2019.

.. over the last five years, global consumer Internet traffic has increased by more than five times. OTT content such as videos, file sharing, web surfing, and online gaming have grown significantly. Web surfing includes accessing web content, emails, and online data, apart from videos.

This is a small CAGR increase compared to the previous report predicting a 31.3% for 2013-2018 (here).

"The traffic is expected to increase from 34.29 Exabytes per month, in 2014, to over 98.16 Exabytes per month, by 2019. An increase in Internet traffic will increase the demand for transparent caching from network operators and MSOs. It will also help the operators provide the highest QoE to their subscribers and achieve cost efficiency.

Key Vendors: Akamai Technologies, Blue Coat Systems, Juniper Networks, PeerApp and Qwilt. 

Other Prominent Vendors: Alcatel-Lucent, Allot Communications, ARA Networks, Brocade, BTI Systems, Cisco Systems, Conversant, Fortinet, Google, Huawei, Level 3 Communications, MaraSystem, SuperLumin Networks, Swiftserve and VidScale".
    

See "Global Transparent Caching Market 2015-2019" - here and "Transparent Caching Market to Grow at 33% CAGR by 2019 Says a New Research Report at ReportsnReports.com" - here. 

Sandvine Sold its Holding in Xerocole to Akamai

Sandvine released yesterday its Q1 results (revenues of $32.4M - here). The release also states that "Net income for the quarter includes $2.8 million of other income related to a gain on the disposition of an investment in a private company".

Sandvine's financial report explains that "On February 27, 2015, the Company sold its preferred share investment in a private company for consideration of $3,057. Consequently, the Company has recognized a gain related to the disposition of its preferred share investment of $2,778. Subsequent to February 28, 2015 the Company collected $2,595 with the balance held in escrow and due August 27, 2016" (here).

According to SeekingAlpha's transcript of the earning call (See "Sandvine's (SNVNF) CEO Dave Caputo on Q1 2015 Results - Earnings Call Transcript" - here) - "approximately $2.8 million of current quarter net income resulted from a gain on the sale of a minority investment in Duracool, which related to a spin out of our 2007 acquisition of Simplicita. Duracool was recently acquired by [indiscernible]".

To be more exact, the name of the private company is Xerocole. 

Simplicita built behavioral advertising solutions and was acquired by Sandvine in 2007, Xerocole was spawn-off in 2010 (see "Sandvine Spins-off Simplicita as Xerocole" - here). Its site explains that its mission is to "simply deliver, for service providers, the smartest and most personal DNS platform on the planet We relentlessly pursue DNS technology and service excellence and perfect how users control the right websites and right time for each. We believe that a great Internet experience begins with great DNS technology and services".

On March 2nd, Akamai announced it has acquired Xerocole (see 'Akamai Acquires Xerocole" - here) - explaining that "Xerocole's intelligent recursive DNS technology was designed to provide carriers with security, speed, and the ability to dynamically and flexibly set DNS policy and user preferences".

Nokia's Optimization: Video Speed Increases by 50%; Akamai Detects Congestion

Nokia Networks announced their location-based solution, with which "Operators will be able to offer efficient content delivery to mobile users, as well as tailored services related to nearby points of interest based on insights gained from their subscription packages and device type as well as network data on traffic patterns, building types and other location information"

Related posts:

• Rumors: NSN's Liquid Applications Uses Saguna's Technology - here
• Akamai Expands CDN to the RAN with Saguna - here
• Saguna's Optimization and Monetization Technology to be Deployed in 2014 - here

Nokia's solution includes:

• "Nokia Liquid Applications’ throughput guidance helps content providers optimize their transmission policy to reflect dynamically changing network resources in real-time. This improves resource utilization in mobile operator's network. YouTube has successfully conducted lab tests of the throughput guidance technology, with initial results showing improvement in network utilization and application quality of experience.

• Congestion detection from Nokia’s Liquid Applications notifies upstream content providers and mobile device clients as to the most efficient time to fetch subscriber content based on real-time cell load information. Akamai, a leading content delivery network (CDN) and cloud computing services provider, is currently testing congestion detection as part of their Predictive Video over Cellular (PVoC) optimization solution for mobile networks.
   
• Nokia smart location experience optimization service provides up to 50% increase in video streaming speeds for consumers based on insights on how applications utilize network resources".

Lior Netzer [pictured], VP and General Manager, Emerging Mobile Business Unit, at Akamai, said: “Akamai’s PVoC video optimization solution is being designed to work with Nokia’s Liquid Applications to intelligently deliver video content at the most optimal times across the mobile network. It makes use of radio context information to initiate video downloads and pre-position content on the mobile subscriber’s device, enabling high quality media experience. Having insight into the real-time capacity levels of the cellular network can result in more efficient utilization of mobile networks.”

See "Nokia Networks smart location experiences place you in the center of personalized services" - here.

Sky Italy Uses Akamai's Managed CDN for VoD

Akamai Technologies announced that "Sky Italia has selected Akamai's Aura Managed Content Delivery Network (MCDN) solution to achieve maximum control and the highest quality of service of its online content including live and on-demand video. With the Aura MCDN, which provides Sky with dedicated CDN capabilities that are maintained by Akamai, Sky can flexibly scale to support its capacity needs of 100's Gbps and beyond. The new content delivery architecture has allowed Sky to also improve download speed by 25 percent and reduce bandwidth cost by 10 percent.

With the biggest over-the-top video audience in Italy, Sky Go (2.35 million users) and Sky on Demand (1.4million) are included with Sky's subscription services. Because of the growing importance of its online channel, Sky adopted an architecture based on multiple Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to obtain maximum control over its delivery capabilities at all times, even during high on-line traffic peaks, such as major sports events.

Integrated with Akamai's Media Delivery Services, the Aura MCDN provides Sky the architectural infrastructure it sought. Because the Aura MCDN delivers more than 30 percent of traffic on behalf of Sky, the company is able to manage traffic peaks that have reached up to 250Gbps. At the same time, Sky has noticed a 25 percent average improvement in the download speed of its content. This translates into a higher quality of service for its subscribers. In addition, Sky has reduced its bandwidth costs by 10 percent because of the ability to direct portions of its traffic to less expensive telecommunication networks".

See "Akamai, Sky Italia Address Rising Consumer Expectations for Online Video" - here

Broadband Minimal Speed is ...

Since my early days in data communications, when we were thrilled to migrate to a 64 kbps IBM 3274 terminal controller, things have changed. for Example - defining what is "high Speed" (or Broadband) is now a complicated task, involving also political and business aspects, not just new technologies and changes frequently:

• Josh Taylor reports to ZDNet that "The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing to raise the minimum speeds allowed for broadband from 4Mbps down, 1Mbps up to 25Mbps down, 3Mbps up .. According to a circulated fact sheet, the FCC is considering raising the definition to "reflect current consumer demands, deployment trends, and technological advances .. The draft report found that 53 percent of rural Americans lack access to the 25Mbps/3Mbps speeds, while across the entire US, 17 percent of -- or 55 million -- Americans lack access to those speeds. In urban areas, all but 8 percent of residents have access to 25Mbps, according to the draft report".
  
  

  

  Source: FCC Internet Access Services: Status as of December 31, 2013
  
  

  See "FCC to define broadband as minimum 25Mbps" - here.
  
  
• Akamai's State of the Internet report (here) says "Since 2012 Akamai has classified broadband as:
   
• High broadband: Internet speeds greater than 10 Mbps when connecting to Akamai 
• Broadband: Internet speeds of 4 Mbps or greater when connecting to Akamai". 
• Akamai also defines "Beyond high broadband" (i.e. readiness to view 4K videos) as "4K adaptive bitrate streams generally require 10 – 20 Mbps of bandwidth". 

[ABI]: New Video Delivery Technologies

A new report by Sam Rosen [pictured], Practice Director, ABI Research finds that video delivery technology has to be adapted to be able to meet demand and quality.

"A few trailblazers are working on disruptive innovations. Areas such as the inability of TCP delivery to keep up with high throughput demands, the lack of perceptual tools in modern codecs, as well as the inefficiency of storage within CDNs all pose significant additional challenges within the ecosystem. A number of innovative companies, from startups to more mature businesses, are addressing these issues: bitmovin [transcoding and players], beamr [Optimization], Akamai, Aspera [High-speed transfer] (part of IBM), Vantrix [here], and Conviva [Analytics]".

“Of the areas we examined, carrier equipment for video delivery, transit replacements for TCP, and real user monitoring (RUM)/application performance monitoring (APM) applied to video have the largest market potential and are expected to be the most pervasive in tomorrow’s video services .. Meanwhile, OTT monitoring is expected to remain a niche market. These disruptive innovations will lead to about US$1.5 billion in 2020 revenues across a variety of industries”.

See "Video Delivery Requires New Codecs, Improved Network Protocols and Analytics" - here.

Akamai and Juniper Demo NFV/SDN Based CDN

Akamai Technologies and Juniper Networks demonstrated an "..Elastic Content Delivery Network (CDN) system designed to enable network operators to address network scalability challenges driven by the rapid increase in video traffic.
 

The proof-of-concept demonstration will leverage Akamai's virtualized Aura Licensed CDN (LCDN) software and Juniper Networks® Contrail Controller for software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) to dynamically scale up and down network resources to support content spikes resulting from the broadcast of large events. The technology is also designed to accelerate service creation for service providers utilizing CDNs to launch innovative multiscreen video services that help drive subscriber acquisition and loyalty.

Akamai's Aura Licensed CDN (LCDN)

.. Akamai is collaborating with Juniper Networks to demonstrate the industry's first on-network Elastic CDN. Unlike previous approaches which required dedicated hardware, long lead times and extensive planning to add capacity, the Elastic CDN solution running on virtualization platforms leverages Juniper Networks Contrail to quickly configure virtual network resources within a virtual CDN, and allows additional caching capacity to be deployed in minutes instead of weeks. The Elastic CDN is highly distributed and virtually networked to enable efficient use of resources. Operating in an OpenStack environment, the combined solution is designed to help reduce time and cost associated with adding new caching capacity to the network, decreasing both capital and operational expense".

See "Juniper Networks and Akamai Technologies Demonstrate Elastic CDN Solution Over Virtualization Platforms" - here.

Akamai Expands CDN to the RAN with Saguna

     

Saguna Networks expands its base-station caching technology, CODS, with CDN-Extend allowing it to participate in a CDN network.

According to the company, "It is a big step forward towards achieving our goal of creating an Open-RAN platform enabling any server-side application to run inside the RAN. CDN-Extend enables 3rd party CDNs to operate inside the mobile base station".

Saguna provides its technology to base station vendors on OEM basis (see "Rumors: NSN's Liquid Applications Uses Saguna's Technology - here and "Saguna's Optimization and Monetization Technology to be Deployed in 2014 - here).

One of Saguna's investors, Xenia, announced earlier this week (here, Hebrew) that the company raised $2M from a "strategic US investor, a leading player in distributed computing and communications networks, a financial investor from China and some of the owners", based on post-money valuation of $27M.

The first CDN provider partnering with Saguna is Akamai.

The company announced a ".. joint demonstration with Akamai .. showcasing the first Content Delivery Network (CDN) that operates from within the Mobile Base Station .. Getting content as close as possible to the mobile user is crucial to reducing round-trip-time (RTT) and making accurate performance tuning decisions, in order to improve the mobile Internet user experience. Radio network edge placement, in concert with the CDN serving the content, is especially beneficial when trying to optimize HTTPS content, since this type of content cannot be cached or optimized inside the mobile network using standard “transparent” caching methods or optimization techniques".

In the demonstration, Akamai’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) is integrated as a server-side application running on the Saguna CODS Open-RAN platform, which operates inside the mobile base station. Using Saguna CODS CDN-Extend, Akamai’s CDN can cache content for delivery as close as possible to mobile users at the mobile network edge".

See "Saguna and Akamai Showcase the World’s First Content Delivery Network Operating from the Mobile Base Station" - here.

[TechNavio]: Transparent Cache Market to Grow at 31% CAGR

A new report by TechNavio finds that ".. Transparent caching is a solution that enables the service provider to offload a significant amount of content traffic by storing a cached copy of the popular content close to the edge of the network, which is delivered to the user directly from the edge of the network rather than from the source. It is invisible to both the content originator and the end user, hence the name. 

TechNavio's analysts forecast the Global Transparent Caching market to grow at a CAGR of 31.3 percent over the period 2013-2018".

TechNavio identifies Blue Coat Systems (here), Juniper Networks, PeerApp (here) and Qwilt (here) as key vendors and Akamai, Alcatel-Lucent (here), Allot Communications (here), ARA Networks, Brocade, BTI Systems (here), Cisco Systems (see "Cisco Partners with PeerApp" - here), Fortinet, Google (here), Huawei (here), Level 3 (here), SuperLumin Networks, Swiftserve (here), VidScale as prominent vendors

See "Global Transparent Caching Market 2014-2018" - here.

Akamai Examines Ultra HD Streaming Readiness

In its Q1 2014 "State of the Internet" report (here), Akamai Technologies examines the Internet's 4K video readiness:

"Given the growing interest in the streaming delivery of 4K (“Ultra HD”) video, we thought it would be interesting to begin tracking a “4K readiness” metric in the State of the Internet Report. 

With 4K adaptive bitrate streams generally requiring between 10 – 20 Mbps of bandwidth, starting with this issue of the report, we’ll be providing insight into the percentage of connections to Akamai from a given country/region with an average connection speed above 15 Mbps, similar to the high broadband (>10 Mbps) and broadband (>4 Mbps) rankings that we have published for the last several years. 

Globally, just 11% of connections to Akamai in the first quarter were at speeds of 15 Mbps or above, as illustrated in Figure 18. This average is significantly lower than those seen across the top 10 countries/regions. Unsurprisingly, South Korea led the list with 60% 4K readiness, a level almost twice that of Japan, which had 32% of its connections at that level in the first quarter. The Czech Republic had the lowest level of 4K readiness among the top 10, coming in at 17%. 

Not surprisingly, the makeup of the top 10 list for this metric is very similar to the global high broadband rankings, with seven countries/regions appearing on both lists. Sweden, Norway, and Finland appear within the top 10 for this metric, while they are absent from the top high broadband countries list, with the United States, Denmark, and Belgium appearing on that list in their stead. 

Overall, only 47 countries/regions qualified for inclusion in this metric. Of those, 23 countries/regions had 4K readiness rates above 10%, while just six had rates below 1%. The lowest readiness rates in the first quarter were found in India and China, which had just 0.3% and 0.2% (respectively) of their connections to Akamai at speeds above 15 Mbps

See "Akamai Releases First Quarter 2014 'State of the Internet' Report" - here.

Google - "we invite content providers to hook up their networks directly to ours"

A post to Google's Fiber blog by Jeffrey Burgan, Director of Network Engineering, describes what Google does to eliminate "buffering" without paid Fast Lanes - "We also partner with content providers (like YouTube, Netflix, and Akamai) to make the rest of your video’s journey shorter and faster. (This doesn't involve any deals to prioritize their video ‘packets’ over others or otherwise discriminate among Internet traffic — we don't do that)"

One question remains - what about all other content providers? how would startups compete with the giants?

"So that your video doesn’t get caught up in this possible congestion, we invite content providers to hook up their networks directly to ours. This is called ‘peering,’ and it gives you a more direct connection to the content that you want .. We have also worked with services like Netflix so that they can ‘colocate’ their equipment in our Fiber facilities .. We give companies like Netflix and Akamai free access to space and power in our facilities and they provide their own content servers .. we also don’t charge because it’s really a win-win-win situation. It’s good for content providers because they can deliver really high-quality streaming video to their customers .. most importantly, we do this because it gives Fiber users the fastest, most direct route to their content"

See "Behind the scenes with Google Fiber: Working with content providers to minimize buffering" - here.

Business Intelligence: Akamai (32%), Limelight (20%) Lead the NA CDN Traffic

A new report by Mark Hoelzel [pictured], Research Analyst, Business Intelligence, finds that:

• More and more video traffic is flowing through this new infrastructure [CDN]: The content delivery networks or CDNs will collectively account for nearly three-fifths of consumer Internet traffic in the U.S. in 2014.
   
• Pricing is complicated: Pricing for CDNs and for the more specialized transit providers that optimize video delivery, balancing performance and cost, varies a great deal. These players offer plans based on factors like bandwidth, time of day, and volume. Bandwidth is the key factor in pricing, but far from the only one. And special agreements dictate quality parameters.
   
• Which is why more and more content providers are building their own CDNs: Google and Netflix have these in place, and rumors are building that Apple is also assembling its own infrastructure.
    
  
   
• Peering agreements are the big point of contention: The price of connecting video pipes directly has become a fraught issue in the video world. Netflix is striking up agreements with ISPs [Verizon, Comcast] to guarantee video performance, but at the same time crying foul that they have to do so. Regulators seem undecided on whether this is a good practice. We dive into the hard business decisions driving the debate.
   
• All the sides — content providers, transit providers, and ISPs — have misrepresented the mechanics and economics of the digital video industry in the context of "net neutrality." We expect more peering agreements that balance the needs of both — and the consumer. The disputes over video streaming fees boil down to who should pay for the exploding popularity of streaming video, and at what quality of service.

See "The Online Video Ecosystem Explained: The Main Players And Conflicts In A Fast-Growing Industry" - here.

Akamai Enhances Video Streaming with MPEG-DASH and HDS

Akamai Technologies announced that it is "adding native support for the emerging Motion Picture Experts Group-Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH) and HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) formats for live and linear streaming content. By accepting these additional formats into its globally distributed entry points, Akamai expects to offer its customers greater flexibility to reach an ever-increasing array of connected devices.
The new capability - 

• is designed to allow event producers to send their streams directly into Akamai ingest servers via nearby entry points, minimizing the chance of quality loss through local network issues and congestion.
• Akamai is working with encoder vendors to qualify their offerings for compatibility, and 
• has added DASH support to its Adaptive Media Player. 

This three-pronged approach is intended to help users more easily stream live events at higher quality to audiences worldwide.

Elemental Technologies is the first partner to be qualified by Akamai for direct DASH and HDS ingest. Their Elemental® Live and Elemental® Server products have been configured and tested in an effort to ensure that streaming content in these new formats is securely and efficiently transferred through Akamai's ingest points.

See "Akamai Announces Native MPEG-DASH and HDS Support for Live Video Workflows" - here.

Telefonica to Offer Akamai's CDN Services

Akamai Technologies and Telefonica Global Solutions, the global service provider part of Telefonica, announced a "strategic global alliance to deliver Akamai´s suite of content delivery network (CDN) solutions to Telefonica enterprise customers. 

To further enhance its CDN business, Telefonica Global Solutions is combining Akamai´s industry-leading content delivery platform with its own global IP network to deliver a suite of global CDN and telecom solutions to enterprises. The strategic alliance will initially focus efforts in Spain and Latin America with plans to expand globally. 

Telefonica International network

..The alliance with Telefonica provides greater distribution of Akamai servers within Telefonica’s IP network and provides additional capacity within Spain and emerging markets in Latin America. The result is greater network efficiency, better service quality for end users, and a more secure system. 

"Telefonica customers are expected to benefit from efficient content routing and high-quality delivery of digital content, video and Web applications, and ultimately a superior end-user experience".

See "Akamai and Telefónica enter into global content delivery alliance" - here.

Optimization Deployments [273]: KT [Korea] the First MNO to Use Ericsson Acceleration

Ericsson announced that "KT has entered into an agreement with Ericsson to launch a mobile content acceleration [MCA] service in its live LTE network. This will be the world's first commercial deployment of its kind, and it builds on technology provided by Ericsson.

According to Ericsson's MCA product page - "The Ericsson Mobile Cloud Accelerator comes pre-integrated with the global Content Delivery Network of Akamai Technologies..  When operators sign a separate agreement with Akamai for Over-The-Top monetization, this enables an initial critical mass of content providers whose business is impacted by the performance of the mobile access network"

At the end of Q3, 2013 KT had more than 6.8M LTE subscribers, impressive portion (42%) of thier total customer base.

source: KT

source: KT

"KT completed a technical feasibility study in January this year after testing and verifying the performance and interoperability of Ericsson's solution in a live network. This was followed by a commercial feasibility study in the third quarter, and the positive results led to KT's decision to launch a commercial service by Q1, 2014

The trial results showed that using MCA reduces web page download time by more than 50 percent, dramatically improving the user experience. This is achieved by guaranteeing traffic transmission quality of certain categories of data, such as premium content and application traffic in the radio access area. The idea is to avoid the effects of radio congestion. The prioritization mechanism can be likened to having large vehicles running on a bus-only lane during periods of heavy traffic, while ordinary cars run on other lanes at slower speeds".

See "KT speeds up mobile content using Ericsson technology" - here.

Akamai Integrates Verivue's Operator's CDN

Following the acquisition of Verivue, Akamai Technologies (see "Akamai Acquires Verivue to Offer Licensed CDN" - here) is now integrating the acquired technology into its Aura - the operator CDN (OCDN) solution.

The CDN vendor announced that ".. Recognizing that operators have different requirements driving their CDN deployments, the Aura Network Solutions suite is comprised of two distinct OCDN product lines – Aura Lumen (licensed CDN) and Aura Spectra (Software-as-a-Service CDN). This model is designed to maximize flexibility in how operators deploy the solution and, in turn, increase the value of their OCDN investment. Further, the integration of products obtained through Akamai's acquisition of Verivue has allowed Akamai to deliver Aura Lumen as a comprehensive solution that can be owned and run by the operator, giving them greater control of their investment.

• Aura Lumen: A Licensed CDN (LCDN) software suite based on CDN technology obtained through the Verivue acquisition. Designed to run on standard commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware or preapproved Virtual Machine (VM) environments, Aura Lumen includes a number of software components intended to meet the critical requirements of an LCDN deployment. 

• Aura Spectra: A SaaS CDN suite providing operators with media CDN capabilities that can be deployed quickly and with far less upfront investment required with a traditional DIY model. Aura Spectra is based on Akamai's CDN software technology and includes the following SaaS components:

See "Akamai Introduces New Elements to Aura Network Solutions Family" - here.

Akamai: Number of DDoS Attacks Grew by 207% in 2012

 
Akamai's "The State of the Internet 4th Quarter, 2012" [here] report finds that the ".. number of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that Akamai saw in 2012 grew significantly from 2011. While 250 attacks were reported in 2011, 2012 saw 768 attacks reported by our customers, a year-over-year increase of more than 200%.

.. over a third (269 or 35%) of the attacks targeted companies in the Commerce sector. An additional 164 attacks (22%) targeted Media and Entertainment companies, followed closely by companies classified as Enterprise, which were targeted by 155 attacks, accounting for 20% of the total. High Tech companies were targeted by 110 attacks (14%), while Public Sector agencies were the target of 70 attacks (9%) last year. The 768 attacks were reported by 413 unique organizations, meaning that many organizations were targeted more than once — some significantly more.

".. attack traffic among the top 10 targeted ports [see chart] increased slightly during the fourth quarter of 2012, with these ports targeted by 60% of observed attacks, up from 59% in the third quarter, but down from the second and first quarters. The percentage of attacks targeting port 445 dropped very slightly quarter-over-quarter, though not as significantly as the declines seen earlier in the year".

CDN Deployments [239]: KT [South Korea] to Use Akamai Operator CDN

Akamai Technologies announced that KT, the leading telecommunications company in Korea has "..agreed to leverage technology from Akamai to provide CDN services to its customers in Korea. Using Akamai's Aura Managed CDN, KT will have dedicated CDN capacity that is available for its own content applications or third party CDN services .. As part of the multi-year agreement, KT plans to deploy and sell their own operator CDN based on Akamai technology and by leveraging the Akamai Intelligent Platform™.

See also "Akamai to Offer Products for Operator's Own Content Delivery" - here.

At the end of 2012, KT had (see charts below) 16.5M mobile  (3.9M in LTE) and 8M fixed broadband subscribers.

See "KT and Akamai Expand Strategic Partnership" - here.

Ericsson: "we will not rely on Akamai technology"

Earlier today I had a post on Ericsson's new CDN solution (see "Ericsson Enhances Operator CDN (is Akamai there?)" - here). I asked Ericsson few questions about the new solution, and got the following answers:

Q: Is the new solution is based on Akamai’s technology? (see "CDN/Cache Announcements: Ericsson Adds Akamai Cache to its [DPI Capable] SSR 8000 Router" - here)

A:  The new solution is based on all Ericsson development and technology, leveraging our capabilities and knowledge in video, networks, especially mobile, and traffic optimisation.

Q: Will you continue to offer Akamai’s solution?

A: We will continue to integrate with Akamai’s global CDN (as well as other 3rd party CDNs) as applicable per customer implementation, as we have done in the past. Existing customers and engagements will be managed on a case-by-case basis, but overall Ericsson will not rely on Akamai technology for it's solution offered to operators to specifically build their own smart, intelligent content-centric networks.