6 ms·

IMO and not very familiar on the similarities between Akamai and CF, if Akamai handle's similar issues without driving pr/marketing efforts based on them that's

IMO and not very familiar on the similarities between Akamai and CF, if Akamai handle's similar issues without driving pr/marketing efforts based on them that's their loss and probably a bad business play. In my mind, this is similar to an antivirus company saying "hey look at all these nasty viruses out there, but we find and destroy them effectively." This really just seems like effective case-studying on CF's part. It's arguably their job to hype it as much as possible (though of course they are responsible for the inaccuracies).

larrys 14y ago
"if Akamai handle's similar issues without driving pr/marketing efforts based on them that's their loss and probably a bad business play." Akamai has been around since 1998. Cloudflare since 2009 (both according according to crunchbase which jives with the date the domain were registered iim). Consequently the established company has more to lose and less to gain from the publicity then the newer company. For a newer company any publicity is good publicity even if it's over a negative event because you have less to lose and more to gain add: and people become familiar with your name. Taking this to an extreme example (to make a point) let's say you start a new hamburger restaurant. You have no customers. On day 5 some people get sick (just sick not deathly sick). All the sudden you are in the local paper with a headline and a story that people just skim but they see your name. Almost guaranteed you will pick up business from the mention. Even though it's bad PR all the sudden down the road people will remember you and either forget or not care about the negative story they read 6 mos. prior (add: assuming they even read the story and didn't just see the headline).
- snowwrestler 14y ago
  Akamai is not really in the DDOS mitigation business. They are in the CDN business, and "DDOS protection" is just one way they market their CDN resources.
  - moe 14y ago
    Actually Akamai is very much pushing their DDoS protection and "Antivirus" snake oil ever since the CDN market started collapsing. Remember Akamai is the Oracle of the CDN world. They're in a bit of a shuffle right now as their competitors have long caught up and offer the same for less, minus the legendary Akamai-arrogance.
    - codesuela 14y ago
      Could you elaborate why the CDN market is collapsing? Genuinely interested.
      - moe 14y ago
        Collapsing in the sense that prices have been in free fall for a while. Akamai sees their market shrink from both ends. At the top-end companies like Netflix start building their own networks because they want more control, less reliance on a third-party, and the cost savings. At the low-end you have pseudo-CDNs like Cloudflare eat into their snake-oil business, and commodity-CDNs like Cloudfront grab the longtail. Connectivity in US/EU has also gotten so good on average (and bandwidth so cheap) that the body of mid-range sites that feel a genuine need to enter an expensive conversation with a "traditional" CDN is evaporating. And this is doubly true for Akamai where that conversation tends to be particularly unpleasant. Akamai and friends are of course well aware and have long shifted their focus to the emerging markets (asia, africa) and mobile. Time will tell for how long that can keep them afloat before they are marginalized.
      - induscreep 14y ago
        Probably because Amazon entered the game...
saraid216 14y ago
> In my mind, this is similar to an antivirus company saying "hey look at all these nasty viruses out there, but we find and destroy them effectively." I'd upvote such an article if it had the technical depth/layman readability of a Cloudflare puff piece.

larrys 14y ago

"if Akamai handle's similar issues without driving pr/marketing efforts based on them that's their loss and probably a bad business play." Akamai has been around since 1998. Cloudflare since 2009 (both according according to crunchbase which jives with the date the domain were registered iim). Consequently the established company has more to lose and less to gain from the publicity then the newer company. For a newer company any publicity is good publicity even if it's over a negative event because you have less to lose and more to gain add: and people become familiar with your name. Taking this to an extreme example (to make a point) let's say you start a new hamburger restaurant. You have no customers. On day 5 some people get sick (just sick not deathly sick). All the sudden you are in the local paper with a headline and a story that people just skim but they see your name. Almost guaranteed you will pick up business from the mention. Even though it's bad PR all the sudden down the road people will remember you and either forget or not care about the negative story they read 6 mos. prior (add: assuming they even read the story and didn't just see the headline).

snowwrestler 14y ago
Akamai is not really in the DDOS mitigation business. They are in the CDN business, and "DDOS protection" is just one way they market their CDN resources.
- moe 14y ago
  Actually Akamai is very much pushing their DDoS protection and "Antivirus" snake oil ever since the CDN market started collapsing. Remember Akamai is the Oracle of the CDN world. They're in a bit of a shuffle right now as their competitors have long caught up and offer the same for less, minus the legendary Akamai-arrogance.
  - codesuela 14y ago
    Could you elaborate why the CDN market is collapsing? Genuinely interested.
    - moe 14y ago
      Collapsing in the sense that prices have been in free fall for a while. Akamai sees their market shrink from both ends. At the top-end companies like Netflix start building their own networks because they want more control, less reliance on a third-party, and the cost savings. At the low-end you have pseudo-CDNs like Cloudflare eat into their snake-oil business, and commodity-CDNs like Cloudfront grab the longtail. Connectivity in US/EU has also gotten so good on average (and bandwidth so cheap) that the body of mid-range sites that feel a genuine need to enter an expensive conversation with a "traditional" CDN is evaporating. And this is doubly true for Akamai where that conversation tends to be particularly unpleasant. Akamai and friends are of course well aware and have long shifted their focus to the emerging markets (asia, africa) and mobile. Time will tell for how long that can keep them afloat before they are marginalized.
    - induscreep 14y ago
      Probably because Amazon entered the game...

saraid216 14y ago

> In my mind, this is similar to an antivirus company saying "hey look at all these nasty viruses out there, but we find and destroy them effectively." I'd upvote such an article if it had the technical depth/layman readability of a Cloudflare puff piece.