Akamai Technologies Buys Bloxx To Beef Up Cloud Security

Akamai, the global leader in content delivery network services, has acquired Scotland-based Bloxx, to beef up its cloud security services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Akamai plans to use Bloxx’s technology to bolster its portfolio of enterprise cloud security offerings, which work to protect corporate networks against all types of threats. The company believes that Bloxx’s Secure Web Gateway technology, which protects around 800 million devices worldwide, will be instrumental to Akamai’s goal of bringing a new suite of cloud-based services to market in 2016.

Willie M. Tejada, senior vice president and general manager, Cloud Networking division Akamai, said in a statement: “Akamai’s traditional business has been about making the Internet fast, reliable and secure for web sites and applications”, “As we look to the future, our strategy includes doing the same for the enterprise, helping to protect corporate end users from the exposure to unsuitable content, viruses, malware, and data leakage. By adding Bloxx’s SWG technologies to our solutions, coupled with the security intelligence that we obtain from our global platform, we believe we are well-positioned to help protect enterprises and their employees from a growing threat landscape.”

Founded in 1999 and based in Edinburgh, Scotland, Bloxx is a privately-held provider of Secure Web Gateway technology. The company is a pioneer in the development and support of sophisticated Email and Web filtering technology. Bloxx patented Tru-View Technology (TVT), the first real-time contextual content analysis solution on the market that provides advanced content analysis and categorisation. Its technology eliminates latency, reduces over and under-blocking and delivers zero second protection for new and modified webpage in their entirety. 

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Akamai Technologies Inc. is a global leader in Content Delivery Network (CDN) services and a cloud service provider.  Akamai operates a network of servers around the world and rents capacity on these servers to companies or organizations who want their websites to load faster by distributing content from locations close to the user. The company’s content delivery network is one of the world’s largest distributed computing platforms, which include a network of 170,000 servers deployed in 100 countries. It makes the Internet fast, reliable and secure. 

Akamai’s customers include Adobe Systems, Airbnb, AMD, ESPN, Hewlett-Packard, Hilton Worldwide, IBM, J. C. Penney, MTV Networks, NASA, Red Hat, Yahoo!. It market competitors include  CDNetworks, CloudFlare, LimeLight, MaxCDN, Microsoft Azure, and EdgeCast Networks. 

Image credit: Akamai