Amid Netflix’s pledge to eradicate buffering, CDN provider Akamai Technologies is taking steps to improve video performance on mobile devices.
Akamai is introducing new features for its Ion Web performance platform that are designed to improve mobile video experiences.
The new changes to the platform will use the Akamai’s new learning engine-based optimizations and a new SDK to improve mobile app experiences.
The new version of Ion will feature automated performance optimization including something the company calls "Adaptive Acceleration," which is designed to automatically determine the optimal time to push content and pre-connect to third-party resources.
The new Mobile App Performance SDK will allow developers to pre-position content for more consistent experiences across varying network conditions. And Akamai’s SureRoute for Cellular is promising to help alleviate congestion and latency in last mile networks.
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The new Akamai Ion will also include protocol optimizations including real-time IPv4/6 adaptation, while supporting secure connectivity for older mobile devices using the Cha-Cha Poly cipher.
"ZALORA is a mobile-first company with the majority of our customer base engaging with us through our native fashion apps across South East Asia," said Karthik Subramanian, CTO of ZALORA, in a statement. "With Ion, and especially the new Mobile App Performance SDK, we are able to provide a much richer and more engaging mobile app experience for our customers. The performance reporting has also given us insight into the real experience that our app users have, enabling us to improve our application to suit our customers' needs better."
"We believe this release of Ion marks the beginning of a new kind of powerful performance optimization—one that is powered by applying machine learning to real user data. Ion customers will be able to quickly and easily take advantage of these capabilities to address the demands of mobile users," said Ash Kulkarni, senior vice president and general manager of the Web Performance Business Unit at Akamai, in a statement. "With more and more businesses adopting mobile apps to achieve greater audience engagement, Akamai's new Mobile App Performance SDK is designed to help developers and app owners provide instant mobile app experiences that adapt in real-time to network conditions."