Misplaced Pages

#272727

62-578: The company was known as CacheFlow until 2002. The company had "a broad security portfolio including hardware, software and services." The company was best known for web gateway appliances that scan internet traffic for security threats, authenticate users and manage encrypted traffic, as well as products to monitor and filter employee internet activity. It also produced consumer products, such as parental control software. The company's products were initially sold to internet service providers , but later products were intended for large companies. In March 1996,

124-518: A content delivery network (CDN) structure, the domain name of the URL is translated by the mapping system into the IP address of an edge server to serve the content to the user. Akamai delivers web content over its Intelligent Platform by transparently mirroring elements such as HTML , CSS , software downloads, and media objects from customers' servers. The Akamai server is automatically chosen depending on

186-669: A core network /backbone network; each subsequent network handles more traffic than the last. Mobile service providers also have similar networks. A mailbox provider is an organization that provides services for hosting electronic mail domains with access to storage for mail boxes. It provides email servers to send, receive, accept, and store email for end users or other organizations. Many mailbox providers are also access providers, while others are not (e.g., Gmail , Yahoo! Mail , Outlook.com , AOL Mail , Po box ). The definition given in RFC 6650 covers email hosting services , as well as

248-472: A telecommunications service, thereby preserving net neutrality. On 10 November 2014, President Barack Obama recommended that the FCC reclassify broadband Internet service as a telecommunications service in order to preserve net neutrality. On 16 January 2015, Republicans presented legislation, in the form of a U.S. Congress H.R. discussion draft bill , that makes concessions to net neutrality but prohibits

310-441: A tier 1 carrier . In reality, the situation is often more complex. ISPs with more than one point of presence (PoP) may have separate connections to an upstream ISP at multiple PoPs, or they may be customers of multiple upstream ISPs and may have connections to each one of them at one or more point of presence. Transit ISPs provide large amounts of bandwidth for connecting hosting ISPs and access ISPs. Border Gateway Protocol

372-902: A Tier 1 ISP. Transit ISPs may use OTN ( Optical transport network ) or SDH/SONET (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy/Synchronous Optical Networking) with DWDM ( Dense wavelength-division multiplexing ) for transmitting data over optical fiber. For transmissions in a metro area such as a city and for large customers such as data centers, special pluggable modules in routers, conforming to standards such as CFP , QSFP-DD, OSFP, 400ZR or OpenZR+ may be used alongside DWDM and many vendors have proprietary offerings. Long-haul networks transport data across longer distances than metro networks, such as through submarine cables, or connecting several metropolitan networks. Optical line systems and packet optical transport systems can also be used for data transmission. Ultra long haul transmission transports data over distances of over 1500 kilometers. A virtual ISP (VISP)

434-552: A commercial telecommunications market, such as the United States. In 1995, NSFNET was decommissioned removing the last restrictions on the use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic and network access points were created to allow peering arrangements between commercial ISPs. On 23 April 2014, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was reported to be considering a new rule permitting ISPs to offer content providers

496-491: A custom operating system called Security Gateway and provided many of its security features through partners, like Symantec and Trend Micro . The company lost 97% of its value from October 2000 to March 2001 as the dot-com bubble burst. The company continued to lose money. By 2002, several competing internet caching companies had abandoned the market, due to slow adoption of caching technology and most of CacheFlow's revenues came from its IT security products. In February 2002,

558-467: A faster track to send content, thus reversing their earlier net neutrality position. A possible solution to net neutrality concerns may be municipal broadband , according to Professor Susan Crawford , a legal and technology expert at Harvard Law School . On 15 May 2014, the FCC decided to consider two options regarding Internet services: first, permit fast and slow broadband lanes, thereby compromising net neutrality; and second, reclassify broadband as

620-694: A number of other criteria an up to $ 30 per month discount toward internet service, or up to $ 75 per month on certain tribal lands. Access provider ISPs provide Internet access, employing a range of technologies to connect users to their network. Available technologies have ranged from computer modems with acoustic couplers to telephone lines, to television cable (CATV), Wi-Fi , and fiber optics. For users and small businesses, traditional options include copper wires to provide dial-up , DSL, typically asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), cable modem or Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) (typically basic rate interface ). Using fiber-optics to end users

682-918: A price of $ 11.04 per share. On November 19, 1999, during the peak of the dot-com bubble , the company became a public company via an initial public offering , raising $ 132 million. Shares rose fivefold on its first day of trading. However, the company was not profitable and its product was unproven. At that time, the company had $ 3.6 million in revenue and $ 6.6 million in losses in the prior 3 months. The company had initially hoped to price its shares at $ 11-13 each and raise $ 50 million but due to strong demand, it priced its shares at $ 26 each. One month later, they traded as high as $ 182 each. In 1999, board of directors member Andrew Rachleff of Benchmark Capital , an investor, brought in Brian NeSmith, who had just sold his company, Ipsilon Networks , to Nokia for $ 120 million, as chief executive officer. In 2000, it introduced

SECTION 10

#1733084737273

744-450: A purpose-built building at 145 Broadway in December 2019. The Akamai Intelligent Platform is a distributed cloud computing platform that operates worldwide, a network of over approximately 365,000 servers in more than 135 countries. These servers reside on roughly 1,350 of the world's networks, gathering real-time information about traffic, congestion, and trouble spots. Each Akamai server

806-514: A region. ISPs may engage in peering , where multiple ISPs interconnect at peering points or Internet exchange points (IXPs), allowing routing of data between each network, without charging one another for the data transmitted—data that would otherwise have passed through a third upstream ISP, incurring charges from the upstream ISP. ISPs requiring no upstream and having only customers (end customers or peer ISPs) are called Tier 1 ISPs . Network hardware, software and specifications, as well as

868-446: A tier 2 or tier 1 ISP usually has a larger network than the contracting ISP or is able to provide the contracting ISP with access to parts of the Internet the contracting ISP by itself has no access to. In the simplest case, a single connection is established to an upstream ISP and is used to transmit data to or from areas of the Internet beyond the home network; this mode of interconnection is often cascaded multiple times until reaching

930-513: A wide array of surveillance and packet sniffing equipment into their networks, which then feeds the data to law-enforcement/intelligence networks (such as DCSNet in the United States, or SORM in Russia) allowing monitoring of Internet traffic in real time. Akamai Technologies Akamai Technologies, Inc. is an American company specialized in content delivery network (CDN), cybersecurity , DDoS mitigation , and cloud services . It

992-530: Is an operation that purchases services from another ISP, sometimes called a wholesale ISP in this context, which allow the VISP's customers to access the Internet using services and infrastructure owned and operated by the wholesale ISP. VISPs resemble mobile virtual network operators and competitive local exchange carriers for voice communications. Free ISPs are Internet service providers that provide service free of charge. Many free ISPs display advertisements while

1054-451: Is another option, including cellular and satellite Internet access . Access providers may have an MPLS ( Multiprotocol label switching ) or formerly a SONET backbone network , and have a ring or mesh network topology in their core network. The networks run by access providers can be considered wide area networks . ISPs can have access networks , aggregation networks/aggregation layers/distribution layers/edge routers/metro networks and

1116-434: Is called Fiber To The Home or similar names. Customers with more demanding requirements (such as medium-to-large businesses, or other ISPs) can use higher-speed DSL (such as single-pair high-speed digital subscriber line ), Ethernet , metropolitan Ethernet , gigabit Ethernet , Frame Relay , ISDN Primary Rate Interface , ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) and synchronous optical networking (SONET). Wireless access

1178-479: Is done at IXPs, while private peering can be done with direct links between networks. Internet service providers in many countries are legally required (e.g., via Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in the U.S.) to allow law enforcement agencies to monitor some or all of the information transmitted by the ISP, or even store the browsing history of users to allow government access if needed (e.g. via

1240-474: Is equipped with proprietary software that uses complex algorithms to process requests from nearby users. The content delivery process begins with a user submitting a request to a browser . When a user enters a URL, a DNS request is triggered to Akamai's authoritative DNS and an IP address is retrieved. With the IP address, the browser can then directly contact the Akamai edge server for subsequent requests. In

1302-510: Is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts . The company was named after akamai , which means 'clever,' or more colloquially, 'cool' in Hawaiian . Co-founder Daniel M. Lewin found the term in a Hawaiian-English dictionary after a colleague's suggestion. Akamai Technologies entered the 1998 MIT $ 50K competition with a business proposition based on their research on consistent hashing , and

SECTION 20

#1733084737273

1364-576: Is used by routers to connect to other networks, which are identified by their autonomous system number. Tier 2 ISPs depend on Tier 1 ISPs and often have their own networks, but must pay for transit or internet access to Tier 1 ISPs, but may peer or send transit without paying, to other Tier 2 ISPs. Tier 3 ISPs do not engage in peering and only purchase transit from Tier 2 and Tier 1 ISPs, and often specialize in offering internet service to end customers such as businesses and individuals. Some organizations act as their own ISPs and purchase transit directly from

1426-697: The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 in the United Kingdom ). Furthermore, in some countries ISPs are subject to monitoring by intelligence agencies. In the U.S., a controversial National Security Agency program known as PRISM provides for broad monitoring of Internet users traffic and has raised concerns about potential violation of the privacy protections in the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution . Modern ISPs integrate

1488-412: The cache . In October 1996, Benchmark Capital purchased 25% of the company for $ 2.8 million, equivalent to a price of 87.5 cents per share. By February 1997, the company had raised $ 5.1 million. In December 1997, U.S. Venture Partners acquired 17% of the company for $ 6 million. In 1997, the company moved its headquarters to Silicon Valley . In January 1998, the company released its first product,

1550-601: The CacheFlow 1000. It cached website objects that users were likely to use repeatedly, to increase load speed. In October 1999, the CacheOS operating system was released. In April 1998, the company released the CacheFlow 100. In mid-1998, during the dot-com bubble , the company made its first sales, earning just $ 809,000 over three months, and investors started pushing for an initial public offering (IPO). In March 1999, Technology Crossover Ventures invested $ 8.7 million for 7% of

1612-664: The CacheFlow Server Accelerator product family, which offloads content delivery tasks from web servers. Tests by Network World found the Server Accelerator 725 increased website load speed eight-fold. The CacheFlow Client Accelerator 600 product family was also introduced in 2000. It was the company's first product family for corporate networks, caching Web or multimedia content directly on the corporate network. Revenues grew from $ 7 million in 1998, to $ 29 million in 1999 and $ 97 million in 2001. It already had 25% of

1674-497: The FCC from accomplishing the goal or enacting any further regulation affecting Internet service providers. On 31 January 2015, AP News reported that the FCC will present the notion of applying ("with some caveats") Title II (common carrier) of the Communications Act of 1934 to the Internet in a vote expected on 26 February 2015. Adoption of this notion would reclassify Internet service from one of information to one of

1736-633: The Internet for a monthly fee, were established in Australia and the United States. In Brookline, Massachusetts , The World became the first commercial ISP in the US. Its first customer was served in November 1989. These companies generally offered dial-up connections, using the public telephone network to provide last-mile connections to their customers. The barriers to entry for dial-up ISPs were low and many providers emerged. However, cable television companies and

1798-657: The Internet. The FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler , commented, "This is no more a plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech. They both stand for the same concept." On 12 March 2015, the FCC released the specific details of the net neutrality rules. On 13 April 2015, the FCC published the final rule on its new " Net Neutrality " regulations. These rules went into effect on 12 June 2015. Upon becoming FCC chairman in April 2017, Ajit Pai proposed an end to net neutrality, awaiting votes from

1860-441: The Internet. The Download Delivery product line includes HTTP downloads for large downloadable objects, a customizable application for consumers, and analytics tools with metrics that monitor and report on the download process. In addition to using its own servers, Akamai delivers certain content from other end-users' computers, in the form of peer-to-peer networking. On October 9, 2013, Akamai announced its Open Initiative at

1922-495: The UHF band (including the MMDS frequency band) and LMDS . It is hypothesized that the vast divide between broadband connection in rural and urban areas is partially caused by a lack of competition between ISPs in rural areas , where there exists a market typically controlled by just one provider. A lack of competition problematically causes subscription rates to rise disproportionately with

Blue Coat Systems - Misplaced Pages Continue

1984-562: The Websense partnership was later at least partially dismantled and the two vendors were "slinging mud at each other" in the VAR community. This was followed by a second generation of the ProxySG product family, which added security features for instant messaging. A review in eWeek said the new ProxySG line was effective and easy to deploy, but the ongoing maintenance fees were expensive. In October 2003,

2046-471: The commission. On 21 November 2017, Pai announced that a vote will be held by FCC members on 14 December 2017 on whether to repeal the policy. On 11 June 2018, the repeal of the FCC's network neutrality rules took effect. Since December 31, 2021, The Affordable Connectivity Program has given households in the U.S. at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines or households which meet

2108-490: The company acquired Entera, a digital content streaming company, for $ 440 million. In 2001, new features specifically for streaming media were introduced under the name "cIQ". Later in 2001, the company was renamed to Blue Coat Systems to focus on security appliances and simultaneously released the SG800. The appliance sat behind corporate firewalls to filter website traffic for viruses , worms and other harmful software . It had

2170-428: The company acquired Ositis Software, maker of antivirus appliances, for $ 1.36 million. In July 2004, the company acquired Cerberian, a URL filtering company, for $ 17.5 million. In 2005, the company introduced an anti-spyware appliance called Spyware Interceptor and the following year it announced upcoming WAN optimization products. This was followed by SSL-VPN security appliances to secure remote connections. In 2005,

2232-559: The company acquired Packeteer, engaged in WAN optimization, for $ 268 million. In 2009, the company introduced a plugin for PacketShaper to throttle applications such as Spotify . A review of the PacketShaper 12000 in IT Pro gave it four out of five stars. The review said that "you won't find superior WAN traffic management anywhere else," but "the hardware platform could be more up to date considering

2294-468: The company acquired Solera Networks, involved in big data security. In December 2013, the company acquired Norman Shark, an anti malware firm. In 2014, Elastica's technology was incorporated into Blue Coat products, with its Audit subscription service being merged into the Blue Coat Appfeed in the ProxySG gateways. Internet service providers Early research and development: Merging

2356-567: The company closed its Redmond, WA office and laid off about 60 workers there. Around a dozen Redmond workers were offered transfers to the Sunnyvale, CA office. In April 2002, the company launched fifth version of its operating system. The Security Gateway 600/6000 Series was the company's newest product family. It had a range of security features, such as authentication, internet use policies, virus scanning, content filtering, and bandwidth restrictions for streaming video applications. In August 2002,

2418-541: The company started adding IT security features. Also in August 2002, the company changed its name to Blue Coat Systems. The new name was intended to evoke the image of a police officer or guard. It then focusing on internet security appliances. Its products were primarily used to control, monitor and secure internet use by employees. For example, a company could limit employee access to online gaming and video streaming, as well as scan attachments for viruses. The shift in focus

2480-501: The company was founded as CacheFlow, Inc. in Redmond, Washington by Michael Malcolm, a computer scientist and professor at the University of Waterloo , Joe Pruskowski, and Doug Crow. The company initially raised $ 1 million in seed money from a dozen angel investors . The company's goal was to develop appliances that would increase website speed by storing frequently accessed web data in

2542-517: The company was profitable for the first time. In 2006, the company introduced a free web-tool, K9 Web Protection , that can monitor internet traffic, block certain websites, identify phishing scams. In a November 2008 review, PC World gave it 4.25 out of 5 stars. In March 2006, the company acquired Permeo Technologies, an end point security company, for $ 60 million. In June 2006, the company acquired NetCache assets from NetApp , which were involved in proxy caching, for $ 30 million. In June 2008,

Blue Coat Systems - Misplaced Pages Continue

2604-673: The company, equivalent to a price of $ 4.575 per share. In September 1999, the company released the CacheFlow 500, with a list price of $ 9,995. A competitive review of caching appliances in PC Magazine gave the CacheFlow 500 Editor's Choice. The editor said it had "excellent performance", a "plug-and-go" setup, and "good management tools". The review noted that its "most noteworthy features" were its DNS caching and object pipelining techniques, which allowed page data to be delivered in parallel, rather than sequential, streams. In early November 1999, Marc Andreessen invested $ 3.1 million in shares, at

2666-483: The company. In August 2011, CEO Michael Borman was fired for failing to meet performance goals and was replaced with Greg Clark . In December 2011, Thoma Cressey Bravo acquired the company for $ 1.3 billion. In March 2012, David Murphy was named chief operating officer and president of the company. In December 2012, the company acquired Crossbeam Systems, maker of the X-Series of security appliances. In May 2013,

2728-533: The difference in competition levels has potentially negatively affected the innovation and development of infrastructure in specific rural areas remains a question. The exploration and answers developed to the question could provide guidance for possible interventions and solutions meant to remedy the digital divide between rural and urban connectivity. Altnets (portmanteau of "alternative network provider") are localized broadband networks, typically formed as an alternative to monopolistic internet service providers within

2790-400: The expertise of network management personnel are important in ensuring that data follows the most efficient route, and upstream connections work reliably. A tradeoff between cost and efficiency is possible. Tier 1 ISPs are also interconnected with a mesh network topology. Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) are public locations where several networks are connected to each other. Public peering

2852-470: The introduction of the World Wide Web . During the 1980s, online service providers such as CompuServe , Prodigy , and America Online (AOL) began to offer limited capabilities to access the Internet, such as e-mail interchange, but full access to the Internet was not readily available to the general public. In 1989, the first Internet service providers, companies offering the public direct access to

2914-770: The networks and creating the Internet: Commercialization, privatization, broader access leads to the modern Internet: Examples of Internet services: An Internet service provider ( ISP ) is an organization that provides myriad services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet . ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned , non-profit , or otherwise privately owned . Internet services typically provided by ISPs can include internet access , internet transit , domain name registration, web hosting , and colocation . The Internet (originally ARPAnet )

2976-493: The overall market for caching and 35% of the caching appliance market and was still not profitable. In March 2000, the company integrated its products with those of Akamai Technologies . In May 2000, the company updated CacheFlow OS to cache multimedia content, including RealNetworks' RealSystem, Microsoft 's Windows Media and Apple 's Quicktime formats. In June 2000, the company acquired Springbank Networks, an internet device company, for $ 180 million. In December 2000,

3038-566: The price." In November 2009, the company went through a restructuring that included layoffs of 280 of its 1,500 employees and the closing of facilities in Latvia , New Jersey and the Netherlands . In February 2010, the company acquired S7 Software Solutions, an IT research and development firm based in Bangalore , for $ 5.25 million. In August 2010, Michael J. Borman was named president and CEO of

3100-415: The quality of service in rural areas, causing broadband connection to be unaffordable for some, even when the infrastructure supports service in a given area. In contrast, consumers in urban areas typically benefit from lower rates and higher quality of broadband services, not only due to more advanced infrastructure but also the healthy economic competition caused by having several ISPs in a given area. How

3162-755: The relevant department of companies, universities, organizations, groups, and individuals that manage their mail servers themselves. The task is typically accomplished by implementing Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and possibly providing access to messages through Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), the Post Office Protocol , Webmail , or a proprietary protocol. Internet hosting services provide email, web-hosting, or online storage services. Other services include virtual server , cloud services, or physical server operation. Just as their customers pay them for Internet access, ISPs themselves pay upstream ISPs for Internet access. An upstream ISP such as

SECTION 50

#1733084737273

3224-465: The telecommunications and, according to Tom Wheeler , chairman of the FCC, ensure net neutrality. The FCC was expected to enforce net neutrality in its vote, according to The New York Times . On 26 February 2015, the FCC ruled in favor of net neutrality by adopting Title II (common carrier) of the Communications Act of 1934 and Section 706 in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to

3286-427: The telephone carriers already had wired connections to their customers and could offer Internet connections at much higher speeds than dial-up using broadband technology such as cable modems and digital subscriber line (DSL). As a result, these companies often became the dominant ISPs in their service areas, and what was once a highly competitive ISP market became effectively a monopoly or duopoly in countries with

3348-411: The type of content and the user's network location. The servers are located in more than 200 countries and territories. Receiving content from a server nearer to the user allows for faster downloads and less vulnerability to network congestion . Akamai claims to provide better scalability by delivering the content over the last mile from servers close to end-users, avoiding the middle-mile bottleneck of

3410-627: The user is connected; like commercial television , in a sense they are selling the user's attention to the advertiser. Other free ISPs, sometimes called freenets , are run on a nonprofit basis, usually with volunteer staff. A wireless Internet service provider (WISP) is an Internet service provider with a network based on wireless networking. Technology may include commonplace Wi-Fi wireless mesh networking, or proprietary equipment designed to operate over open 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 4.9, 5.2, 5.4, 5.7, and 5.8 GHz bands or licensed frequencies such as 2.5 GHz (EBS/BRS), 3.65 GHz (NN) and in

3472-546: Was added to the S&;P 500 Index. In 2013, co-founder Tom Leighton was elected chief executive officer, replacing Sagan. In 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged a former executive at Akamai Technologies for illegally tipping non-public information about the company's financial predicament as part of the insider trading scheme operated by now-imprisoned Galleon Management hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam. In 2014 it

3534-443: Was developed as a network between government research laboratories and participating departments of universities. Other companies and organizations joined by direct connection to the backbone , or by arrangements through other connected companies, sometimes using dialup tools such as UUCP . By the late 1980s, a process was set in place towards public, commercial use of the Internet. Some restrictions were removed by 1991, shortly after

3596-424: Was followed by smaller losses and revenues at first and eventually company growth. Losses in 2002 after the rename were $ 247 million, about half of the prior year's losses. By 2003, the company had 250 employees and $ 150 million in annual revenue. In 2003, 3 new products were introduced for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with 50, 100 or 250 users in bundles with Websense ; and Secure Computing , although

3658-621: Was listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market from October 29, 1999. On July 1, 2001, Akamai was added to the Russell 3000 Index and Russell 2000 Index. On September 11, 2001, co-founder Daniel M. Lewin died in the September 11 attacks at the age of 31 when he was stabbed by one of the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11 , the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center . He

3720-943: Was reported that the National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation used Facebook 's Akamai CDN to collect information on Facebook users. On February 9, 2021, Akamai announced it would reorganize into two internal groups, Security Technology and Edge Technology. It also re-established the role of chief technology officer, and named Robert Blumofe to that role. Long-time chief security officer (CSO) Andy Ellis announced he would leave in March 2021. Akamai's headquarters are in Kendall Square . It started in Technology Square and later expanded to multiple buildings in Cambridge Center . It consolidated its offices in

3782-587: Was seated closest to the hijackers and may have tried to stop them. Arabic news network Al-Jazeera was an Akamai customer from March 28, 2003 to April 2, 2003, when Akamai decided to end the relationship, which the network's English-language managing editor claimed was due to "political pressure". In 2005, Paul Sagan was named chief executive officer of Akamai, taking over from Conrades. Sagan worked to differentiate Akamai from its competitors by expanding its breadth of services. Under his leadership, it grew to $ 1.37 billion in revenue. In July 2007, Akamai

SECTION 60

#1733084737273

3844-702: Was selected as one of the finalists. By August 1998, they had developed a working prototype, and with the help of Jonathan Seelig and Randall Kaplan , they took steps to incorporate the company. Akamai Technologies was incorporated on August 20, 1998. In late 1998 and early 1999, a group of business professionals and scientists joined the founding team—most notably, Paul Sagan , former president of New Media for Time Inc. , and George Conrades , former chairman and chief executive officer of BBN Corp. and senior vice president of US operations for IBM . Conrades became chief executive officer of Akamai in April 1999. The company launched its commercial service in April 1999 and

#272727