The
Computing Service Centre (CSC) is pleased to announce that the
CityU has become the first university in Hong Kong to sign with
Akamai for providing free and fast access to many popular Web
sites such as: CNN, Mcafee, Symantec, NBC, Reuters and Lycos.
With Akamai hosting some or all of their Web contents, these
popular sites will no longer need to constantly upgrade their
Web servers or even purchase any Web server at all, and yet
we, as end users, can expect unfailing deliveries of Web contents
quickly and reliably.
How can
Akamai do that? By using technologies developed by M.I.T. and
with its enormous network reach (Akamai currently has 11,689
servers installed on 821 networks in 62 countries), Akamai servers
can detect user locations, connection speeds, browser types
and other types of information for each and every content request.
This information can then help determine the most suitable server
to deliver the content. Moreover, by continuously monitoring
Internet conditions and the performance of Akamai servers, a
complete, up-to-date map of the best routes around Internet
outages, congestion, and other content roadblocks can be maintained.
Therefore when a user makes a request to either a Web server
installed with Akamai software or the Akamai server itself,
the server in question will know which Akamai server is optimally
suited to serve the content and instantly direct the request
to that server. The Akamai server uses trend analysis of real-time
data including packet loss and latency to continuously refresh
its map. This comprehensive data gathering and analysis is what
distinguishes Akamai from other traffic management services.
Thus, an Akamai server is able to detect and react quickly to
sudden Internet outages and failures, so that user requests
are always directed along the optimal route.
Currently,
the CSC has installed three Akamai servers on campus; two are
now providing services exclusively to CityU users and one designated
as a stand-by backup.