Content Delivery Networks See Spike for Obama Inauguration

Akamai Technologies and Limelight Networks each report record traffic during President Barack Obama's inauguration.


Akamai delivered a peak of over 7 million active
simultaneous streams (the majority being live streams). Tuesday also represented a single-day peak on the Akamai EdgePlatform for concurrent live streams utilizing Adobe Flash technology, serving over 800 Gbps of Flash streaming. Total traffic on the Akamai network surpassed a rate of more than 2 terabits per second at approximately 12:15 p.m. ET. Akamai also delivered over 12,000,000 requests per second at the same time.


Limelight Networks webcast President Barack Obama's inaugural address live to an estimated 2.5 million viewers - over two full Nielsen ratings point of viewing audience. This represents a new record for the company. Limelight reported that the overwhelming majority of viewers joined a live video stream just before Obama began his inaugural address. Audience members remained connected to the live stream for almost the entirety of Obama's speech.


"Today's inauguration is an example of the global power of the Internet as a platform to unite. Like never before, people from around the world joined together to experience this historic moment," said Nathan Raciborski, chief technical officer and co-founder, Limelight Networks, Inc.
http://www.limelightnetworks.com/