InformationWeek

Akamai first attacked the Web-site performance issue with a service that offloads rich content such as graphics and images from a site to Akamai's international network of cache servers, then delivers that content to the user based on proximity.

With FirstPoint, Akamai will cut the time it takes a user to access a Web site by finding the Web server with the lightest load. The service is designed for companies with the same content in multiple Web-server locations, ensuring that requests go to the server that will give the fastest response.

"With E-commerce competition building, you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression with consumers," says Alex Benik, an analyst at the Yankee Group, a consulting and research firm.

"We've been able to cut delivery time for our banner ads from two different data centers by 20% to 30%," says beta tester and planned subscriber Sean Moriarty, VP of Internet systems at Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch Inc. in Pasadena, Calif. Akamai's use of real-time network performance statistics to direct user traffic is where companies get the real advantages, Moriarty says, "since you don't want to send them over a lousy connection to one data center if the path to a second one is better."

Because FirstPoint is a managed service, businesses don't need to buy, staff, or operate their own traffic-management systems. FirstPoint can be used with Akamai's content caching and streaming media services.