BANGALORE, INDIA: Akamai Technologies announced the industry's first managed Internet service for optimizing delivery of virtualized applications and desktops. Leveraging core technology from the Akamai IP Application Accelerator solution, the new targeted offering is designed to help enterprises realize the cost efficiency, scalability and global reach inherent with the Internet to deliver applications over virtual desktop infrastructure products offered by companies such as Citrix, Microsoft and VMware.

Featuring customized integrations through professional services specific to virtual desktops, along with new, concurrent user-based pricing, Akamai's latest offering is focused on making it easier and more cost effective for enterprises to realize the intended return on investment of their virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

Deployment of virtualized applications and desktops over Akamai's globally-distributed network of over 50,000 servers is designed to ensure high performance regardless of a user's location. In addition, enterprises that adopt Akamai solutions can often eliminate the need to build out or upgrade costly private networks limited by preset reach and scale. Instead, Akamai allows for highly scalable and secure virtual desktop deployments to anyone, anywhere, across an Internet-based platform spanning 70 countries.

“We see the desktop virtualization market poised for significant growth and believe that our unique managed services model allows us to work with enterprises on large, global deployments of their virtual desktop infrastructure,” said Willie M Tejada, VP, Application and Site Acceleration, Akamai.

“We have seen good traction beyond browser-based applications since launching IP Application Accelerator, and this customized offering will allow us to focus even more on virtualization, meeting the needs of our enterprise clients through a user-based pricing model,” he added.

The Akamai IP Application Accelerator solution targeted for VDI is intended to allow enterprises to optimize application user performance–anywhere, anytime. With no requirement that customers make capex outlays or implement software changes or client-side software, Akamai's unique technology has been designed to transparently eliminate latency introduced by Internet routing, packet loss, and constrained throughout, which are all critical to providing acceptable virtualized user experiences.

Performance improvements can be realized through several techniques including dynamic mapping, route optimization, packet redundancy algorithms, and transport protocol optimization.

“We are excited to collaborate with Akamai to meet the needs of today's global enterprise. Akamai's IP Application Accelerator for VDI is a perfect complement to Citrix desktop virtualization solution and HDX technology. Together with Akamai, Citrix virtual desktop and application customers can provide best possible user experience using the public Internet instead of building their own proprietary networks,” said Sumit Dhawan, VP-Product Marketing, Citrix Systems.

“Through the combination of Citrix and Akamai, optimization of the user experience will happen in the datacenter, in the Internet cloud, and the end point, allowing IT to deliver a rich user experience with virtual desktops to any user anywhere,” he ended.