Akamai intensifies India focus

Akamai Technologies, the $200 million global service provider for accelerating content and business processes online, has stated that its Indian operations will play a key role in R&D, customer service and support, besides global sales and marketing.

Companies such as rediff.com and bbcworld.com deploy Akamai solutions to enable a surer, faster and secure access to their sites.

The company is helped in this effort by its recent acquisition of Speedera Networks for approximately $130 million in a total stock deal. Speedera Networks had almost all its development base in Bangalore and presently employs close to 60 professionals.

Announcing the recent completion of the deal and the enhanced focus in India, Paul Sagan, president & CEO, Akamai said: "We are excited about working with a talented group of new employees who are joining us to establish the India operations within Akamai's overall business strategy and help in our growth."

Akamai has stated that its solutions provide businesses with a distributed platform for accessing web computing and capacity on demand worldwide.

According to the company, a new generation of online customers ranging from individuals to enterprises now expect rich content and interactive communication to be an integral part of their everyday commercial experience.

According to IDC, the entire online spending could reach $316 billion by 2010 and Akamai is targetting this rapidly emerging market for broadband commerce and the exchange and consumption of information, data and entertainment.

"India has certainly helped us lead the way and we have benefitted from learning to satisfy a new generation of global customers now using the Internet. The innovation of our Bangalore team will add to our ability to ensure that new business models brought on by the Internet to transact and exchange information on-line with continue and flourish," Sagan noted.