Akamai integrates CDN and edge compute with Connected Cloud launch

The launch signals Akamai’s transition from a pure-play CDN to a distributed cloud provider capable of rivaling hyperscalers for latency-critical workloads. By co-locating compute and storage at the edge where traffic is already high-volume, streaming platforms can reduce origin load and improve application responsiveness. This shift addresses the increasing industry demand for multi-cloud strategies where performance-heavy components are offloaded from centralized hubs like AWS or Azure. Watch for Akamai’s ability to gain traction among enterprise SaaS and media providers through aggressive egress pricing and its established peering relationships with last-mile ISPs.

The rollout of Akamai Connected Cloud arrives as the company reports significant momentum in its non-delivery business segments. Per Akamai’s Q1 2026 financial results (reported May 2026), Cloud Infrastructure Services (CIS) revenue jumped 40% year-over-year to $95 million, fueled by a landmark $1.8 billion, seven-year contract with a major frontier AI model provider. This growth highlights Akamai's strategy of diversifying beyond its legacy CDN business, which currently sees revenue split between security (up 11% to $590 million) and the expanding compute portfolio. CEO Tom Leighton has positioned this distributed infrastructure as the 'most distributed cloud platform on the planet,' specifically targeting the $500 billion cloud market that hyperscalers currently dominate.

Competitive pressure is intensifying as hyperscalers and specialist peers alike move deeper into edge territory. According to Synergy Research Group (May 2026), the 'Big Three'—AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud—now control 64% of the global cloud infrastructure market, with AWS leading at 28%. However, specialized providers like Fastly and Cloudflare are maintaining relevance through programmable edge runtimes. Per BlazingCDN (May 2026), Akamai currently maintains the largest physical footprint with approximately 1,500 points of presence (PoPs), compared to over 600 for Amazon CloudFront. This density is becoming critical for the next wave of 'AI-at-the-edge' workloads, which require localized inference to maintain low latency for interactive consumer applications.

Technological shifts in media delivery are further driving this move toward the edge. By early 2026, HTTP/3 with QUIC has become the industry standard for media segments, contributing to an 8–14% reduction in mobile rebuffering according to industry measurements. Akamai has responded by integrating its 2022 Linode acquisition directly into its edge fabric, offering streaming customers serverless transcoding at dozens of metro sites (per Fierce Network, February 2026). As enterprise cloud spending is forecast to surpass $1 trillion by the end of 2026, Akamai’s strategy hinges on convincing streaming operators that a distributed, edge-first architecture offers superior unit economics and performance compared to traditional centralized cloud models.