Akamai State of the Internet

Akamai State of the Internet
Title	Akamai State of the Internet
Type	Research report
Publisher	Akamai Technologies
First published	2008
Frequency	Quarterly (historically), Special reports
Discipline	Internet performance, Cybersecurity

Akamai State of the Internet

The Akamai State of the Internet is a recurring research report produced by Akamai Technologies that analyzes global Internet infrastructure performance, cybersecurity trends, and traffic patterns. It provides metrics on bandwidth, latency, and attack vectors, informing stakeholders such as Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Facebook as well as policy bodies like the European Commission and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The report synthesizes data from Akamai's distributed content delivery network and public datasets to map connectivity across markets including United States, China, India, Brazil, and Japan.

Overview

The report aggregates measurements from Akamai's global edge server network and discusses implications for entities such as Netflix, Spotify, Alibaba Group, Tencent, Apple Inc., Walmart, and PayPal. It highlights performance indicators relevant to stakeholders including Verizon Communications, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, NTT, Orange S.A., and Telstra, while situating findings against events like the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine war, and trade tensions involving United States–China trade relations. The State of the Internet frames trends in context with standards organizations and forums such as the Internet Engineering Task Force, World Wide Web Consortium, and ICANN.

Methodology and Data Sources

Akamai's methodology relies on telemetry from its globally distributed content delivery network infrastructure, passive and active measurements, and synthesis with third-party inputs from organizations like Cloudflare, Fastly, RIPE NCC, ARIN, APNIC, and Lacnic. The report uses metrics gathered from edge nodes in cities such as New York City, London, Frankfurt, Singapore, Sydney, São Paulo, and Hong Kong and cross-references geolocation databases maintained by providers including MaxMind and route information from Border Gateway Protocol. Analytic techniques draw on time-series analysis common to projects by Google Public DNS, Aksoy Research, and academic groups at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, Tsinghua University, and University of California, Berkeley. Security incident data parallels feeds from Malwarebytes, FireEye, Palo Alto Networks, Kaspersky Lab, Symantec, and CrowdStrike.

Key Findings and Metrics

The report emphasizes measurable indicators: average connection speed, peak connection speed, median latency, packet loss, IPv4 and IPv6 adoption, and attack traffic typologies like distributed denial-of-service and credential stuffing. It reports on market leaders and laggards among national operators including South Korea Telecom, SK Telecom, Swisscom, Telia Company, Rogers Communications, and BT Group. Findings often reference technical standards from IEEE, the adoption of protocols promoted by IETF such as HTTP/2 and QUIC, and the impact of CDN optimization on services by Adobe Systems, Electronic Arts, Zoom Video Communications, and Slack Technologies.

Regional and Industry Analyses

Regional breakdowns compare metrics across continents and markets, contrasting performance in regions represented by European Union, ASEAN, Mercosur, African Union, and Gulf Cooperation Council. Industry analyses assess sectors including online video for YouTube, e-commerce for Shopify merchants, finance for JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Visa Inc., gaming for Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts, and cloud services by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. The report highlights regulatory and infrastructure influences, referencing initiatives like the Digital Single Market and projects by Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and India's National Optical Fibre Network.

Trends and Historical Comparisons

Historical comparisons chart long-term shifts in broadband adoption exemplified by markets such as South Korea, Japan, Finland, Estonia, and Norway and rising capacities in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mexico, and Nigeria. The report traces the evolution of threats with historical incidents including the Mirai botnet attacks and campaigns attributed to actors discussed in relation to NATO cybersecurity dialogues and sanctions by bodies like the United Nations Security Council. It situates protocol transitions and infrastructure investment alongside milestones from ARPANET heritage to contemporary submarine cable projects such as Marea and FASTER.

Criticisms and Limitations

Critiques of the report address representativeness because Akamai's dataset stems from its commercial footprint, prompting comparisons to datasets from RIPE NCC and academic measurement platforms like CAIDA and Measurement Lab. Analysts at institutions including Brookings Institution, Chatham House, and Center for Strategic and International Studies note potential biases in geographic sampling and inferences about end-user experience versus server-side metrics. Limitations also include challenges in attributing attacks to specific actors discussed in reports by Europol, FBI, and Interpol, and in reconciling proprietary telemetry with open measurements promoted by Open Observatory of Network Interference.

Category:Internet measurement reports