Akamai's CDN claims new record for peak traffic

Akamai said that earlier this month it set a new record for peak data traveling across its global content delivery network.The company said that on Dec. 11, the volume of data passed 72 Tbps, surpassing the 70 Tbps threshold for the first time in the company's 20-year history.The volume, which Akamai equated to delivering more than 10 million DVDs per hour, was largely attributed to streaming of live sports events, gaming releases and major software updates along with elevated traffic levels from many of the e-commerce sites around the globe."The scale, reach and intelligence of our network is the reason Akamai was able to help our media customers deliver this summer's FIFA 2018 World Cup Russia—the largest sporting event we've supported. It's why more than 10 million people were able to simultaneously stream the Indian Premier League championship cricket match, and it's how earlier this year Akamai successfully absorbed the single-biggest recorded DDoS attack in history,” said Akamai CEO and co-founder Tom Leighton, Ph.D., in a statement.