Akamai’s Global CDN Exceeded 100 Tbps for First Time

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Akamai is feeling the need for speed right now as it announced that its global content delivery network hit an all-time high of 106 Tbps (terabits per second) in its delivery of digital content. This is the first time the company’s CDN has surpassed the 100 Tbps mark.

“Delivering 106 terabits per second is roughly the same as downloading 3,300 two-hour HD movies every second, or nearly 12 million an hour,” said Adam Karon, Akamai executive vice president and general manager, media & carrier. The traffic peak was driven by content and data delivered at the same time, largely contributed to by a popular video game update, according to Karon.

It was in 2018 that Akamai surpassed 70 Tbps with its delivery combination of live sports, gaming releases and software updates. Today, it averages more than 50 Tbps on a daily basis.