Summary: Akamai is deepening ties to Microsoft’s Azure services with integration with Azure Media Services. Azure Media Services builds on Azure cloud, adding capabilities for encoding, video streaming, content protection, and an AI-based metadata extraction service (think automated subtitling and such) for a more streamlined video production and delivery process.
Background: On the surface, the release is a straightforward extension of a three-year-old deal that has seen Akamai offered as a content delivery option for Azure customers. However, there are some noteworthy components of the deal for customers and for Akamai’s business.
Customers: For customers, there is the prospect of improved performance and more predictable costs for media delivery – a big concern when trying to architect a subscriber or ad-based video service. Akamai confirmed it will now have a direct interconnection with Azure infrastructure using ExpressRoute, although it did not specify how many points of presence it has connected to Microsoft.
Akamai angle: From the point of view of Akamai’s business, the company has for the first time (to our knowledge) committed to making some of its services run on a third party cloud provider. Akamai only confirmed it would make ‘select strategic customer solutions’ available, and that those services would be available on the Azure marketplace. This could mean something along the lines of a media analytics offering, or the provisioning of an advanced WAF and DDoS mitigation service from the Azure console.
Angle: There could be implications for Akamai’s profit margins down the road, but for now opening up a new sales channel that is low-touch is a low-risk and smart angle to play. After all, Akamai is now going up against Microsoft’s own CDN as well as Verizon’s CDN in the Azure catalog, and having additional capabilities available could help Akamai stand out among Microsoft’s customers.