IBM, Akamai Partner to Boost Application Speed

This partnership to boost application speeds beyond the firewall reflects the growing importance of cloud computing in today's enterprise computing. Sean Michael Kerner reports.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) is partnering with Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM) for new joint application acceleration solutions.

The new solutions include the WebSphere Application Accelerator for Public Networks, which includes a hardware component as well a managed service with Akamai for network delivery.

"What is unique is that the product offerings are managed services that extend the capability of WebSphere server and application middleware beyond the edge of the enterprise," Corey Scobie, Chief Strategist for Application Optimization, IBM told InternetNews.com. "That is new ground for IBM. Historically we've been strong in technology that existed within the wall of the enterprise and the data center."

Scobie noted that the service works by accelerating applications within a datacenter with hardware and Akamai's delivery fabric. The plan is for enterprise applications to be available to users within one Internet hop, by leveraging the Akamai network.

Read the rest about the IBM-Akamai partnership at Enterprise Networking Planet.