Akamai to transform media workflow efficiency at the edge
Akamai Technologies, a cloud provider, has expanded its offerings with a new media-focused service leveraging NVIDIA GPUs on its global edge platform. The company recently unveiled plans to embed cloud computing capabilities into its edge network.
This addition aims to enhance productivity and cost-effectiveness for companies operating in the media and entertainment sector, particularly those grappling with the demands of processing video content.
Recent internal testing conducted by Akamai revealed that the utilization of GPU-based encoding, specifically employing the NVIDIA RTX 4000, delivers a 25-fold increase in frames per second (FPS) compared to conventional CPU-based methods.
The newly introduced cloud-based service enables media and entertainment enterprises to construct scalable and resilient architectures, facilitating faster, more dependable, and portable workflows. According to the company, by leveraging Akamai’s widely distributed cloud platform and integrated content delivery and security services, companies can optimize their operations for improved performance.
Shawn Michels, vice president of cloud products at Akamai, emphasizes the necessity for media companies to access low latency, reliable compute resources that retain workload portability.
“NVIDIA GPUs provide superior price performance when deployed on Akamai’s global edge platform. Together with our Qualified Compute Partners and open platform, we give our customers the capability to architect their next-gen workloads to be cloud agnostic and support multi-cloud architectures,” Michels adds.
The introduction of industry-optimized GPUs by Akamai aims to address a gap in the market, particularly for media-focused applications, where existing solutions may be cost-prohibitive. Drawing on its knowledge in the field, Akamai says it has tailored its GPU offering to meet the specific requirements of the media and entertainment industry.
The applications of NVIDIA RTX 4000 GPUs span various sectors, including video transcoding, live streaming, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data analysis, scientific computing, gaming, and high-performance computing.
Akamai will showcase its cloud-based media delivery solutions, including integrations with Qualified Compute Partners, at the 2024 NAB Show in Las Vegas.
“In order to support a wide range of workloads, you need a wide array of compute instances,” continues Michels. “What we’re doing with industry-optimized GPUs is one of many steps we’re taking for our customers to increase instance diversity across the entire continuum of compute to drive and power edge native applications.”
Read more:
Cloudflare, Akamai named leaders in independent research firm reports
Akamai Technologies acquires Neosec to improve API security
Comments