France Telecom-owned Orange becomes the latest operator in the marketplace to deploy CDN services on its network and address the increase of web traffic and video streaming by end users.
Akamai’s Aura Network Solutions will be integrated with the company’s enterprise unit Orange Business Services, aiming to utilise the solutions initially in France.
The companies further declared a strategic alliance and have formed an innovation steering committee to identify areas of innovation for CDN solutions.
“Akamai and Orange have a history of bringing unique and innovative solutions to address enterprises’ needs,” said Mark Vargo, SVP and general manager at Akamai EMEA.
“By combining the strengths of two leading technology companies in a single partnership, we believe we can provide enterprises in the French market with a robust and comprehensive set of acceleration and optimisation offerings that will help address all aspects of their online businesses.”
The partnership will combine Akamai’s expertise in improving internet performance across multiple devices, with Orange’s vast network, and the deal is seen as major in further steps towards more integrated content delivery platforms.
Both companies heralded the partnership as significant in developing innovative solutions to optimise online media, web-based applications and mobile content.
“We see great potential in this partnership with Akamai,” said Gilles Prunier, SVP of the smart networks programme at Orange. “Developing an Orange CDN service, powered by Akamai, will allow us to enrich our existing b2b services portfolio and to support our customers’ growth by providing them with new and differentiated web features that improve the end-user experience and ultimately increase customer loyalty.”
