Akamai Unveils Sola Media Solutions Portfolio

Cloud-based Services Unify the Delivery, Workflow and Monetization of Video

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (05 Sep 2012)

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading cloud platform for delivering secure, high-performing user experiences to any device, anywhere, today introduced the new Sola Media Solutions portfolio. A comprehensive set of cloud?based, integrated services, Sola Media Solutions is designed to offer customers a powerful, yet easy-to-use way to address the challenges of online media workflow and delivery. The solution portfolio, including newly available transcoding and stream packaging capabilities, will be introduced and demonstrated to attendees at the upcoming IBC 2012 (Stand 7.K36), taking place September 6-11, 2012 in Amsterdam.  

According to a recent report by industry analyst firm Gartner, Inc., “more than 1 billion connected devices — including smartphones, media tablets and ultrathin notebooks — capable of consuming all forms of media will be in the hands of consumers by 2015.” The report further states that, “On the operational side of things, moving aspects of the content creation, distribution and licensing processes into the cloud holds the promise of not just lowering costs, but also removing friction — in the form of fairly manual processes in today's systems — from many of these processes.”.

Meeting the increasing demand for content that is available when and where viewers want it, on a wide variety of devices, and with the highest quality possible can present challenges. To address these, content providers are seeking solutions that offer control over the end-to-end experience, from preparing the content to expertly adapting to dynamic playtime conditions. They want the cost advantages of efficiency, agility, and flexibility that cloud-based solutions offer, while ensuring that the platform they choose has the flexibility to incorporate technologies that address their varying content and audience requirements.

The Akamai Sola Media Solutions portfolio is built on the Akamai Intelligent Platform which provides unmatched scale and reliability to support customers’ goals and objectives for their online video initiatives. Designed to meet a range of requirements across the entire content lifecycle, Sola Media Solutions consists of the following:

·      Sola Sphere – The portfolio’s highly scalable and reliable global CDN is used to store content and deliver it to viewers around the globe. Support for progressive media downloading and adaptive bitrate streaming through industry standard protocols helps customers address the challenges of delivering to a variety of player platforms over varying network conditions, all while maintaining a high quality experience.    

·      Sola Vision – Customers use Sola Vision’s capabilities to simplify three critical areas in the online content lifecycle – the need to adapt content for efficient, engaging online delivery, to protect content at a level appropriate to the application, and to simply and efficiently connect viewers to content providers, operators, advertisers, and other participants in the online media delivery ecosystem. Sola Vision introduces powerful new capabilities in the area of cloud-based transcoding and stream packaging that dramatically simplifies the workflow necessary for delivering content across multiple platforms and protocols. In addition to support for industry initiatives such as TV Everywhere and UltraViolet, Sola Vision is designed to support multiple levels of content protection, from player verification through a variety of studio-grade DRM technologies. Methods for effectively monetizing video through advertising and other means are also critical elements of Sola Vision. The architecture’s flexibility allows content owners and providers to match content protection levels and monetization strategies to the specific content and target audience.

·      Sola Media Analytics – The ability to understand how viewers are consuming content and visibility into the overall quality of their experience are paramount to successful engagements. Sola Media Analytics collects both real-time quality and post-event audience engagement information required to better understand viewer behavior and reveal opportunities for improving the viewer experience. 

·      Luna Control Center –Sola Media Solutions’ capabilities are managed through the Luna Control Center, a unified web user interface that supports all Akamai solutions. For example, content owners can simply specify the target end devices and desired security levels for a given library of media titles. Sola Vision’s integrated expert system, built on over a decade of media streaming experience, then determines the appropriate renditions, bitrate settings, protocols, and dozens of other settings required for optimized viewing and delivery. Further, the user interfaces can be easily updated as new device types, protocols, and technologies are introduced, making it easy for customers to incrementally adapt their content to embrace these changes in the future.

Architected for openness and flexibility, Sola Media Solutions capabilities may also be accessed through open APIs to allow customers to integrate Sola Media capabilities into their existing content workflows. In addition, Sola Media’s open platform approach supports the integration of a variety of third-party security/DRM and advertising /monetization technologies and platforms, in order to maximize choice.

The Akamai Sola Media Solutions portfolio is available now. The latest offerings include Transcoding for on-demand content and Stream Packaging which adapts a single file or live stream on-the-fly for delivery to multiple viewing devices. The portfolio will be highlighted for attendees at IBC 2012 in Amsterdam.

“Sola Media Solutions is all about taking online video to the next level through a combination of simplicity, superior quality and choice,” said Bill Wheaton, senior vice president, Media Division, Akamai. “By removing the complexity of content preparation, protection and delivery, we’re giving our customers the freedom to focus on what they do best – create great content.”

About Akamai

Akamai is the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere.  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.

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act

This release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, failure of Akamai services to operate as expected or to address intended market needs, a failure of Akamai's network infrastructure, and other factors that are discussed in Akamai's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.