When Apple approached Akamai to build a private relay solution to protect Safari users, the latter ended up creating a custom solution for them. It sent a strong signal to Akamai that there was a growing appetite for compute solutions that offer an alternative to what hyperscalers like AWS provide. Akamai wanted its solution to be easy, developer focussed and evolve with changing market dynamics. At the same time, they didn't want to compete with hyperscalers like AWS for every functionality. That’s what attracted them to Linode.
According to Shawn Michels, VP of Product Management at Akamai, three things attracted Akamai to Linode: product, people and vision. “Linode's vision was to accelerate innovation by making compute solutions accessible, democratized, easy to use, and affordable,” he said. It aligned very well with what Akamai was trying to do and the rest is history.
When asked what this acquisition meant for Linode and its users, the simplest answer Michels had: It makes Linode scalable and now Linode users can scale as much as they want.
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