Included as an extension of Configuration Manager is Akamai's real-world integrated staging environment for testing of configuration changes made prior to production deployment. By testing application configuration changes on Akamai's staging environment, the risks associated with live testing are greatly reduced. Furthermore, the need to purchase and manage additional infrastructure for pre-production test environments is eliminated.

"Enterprises choose Akamai managed application acceleration services because they gain an almost immediate time-to-value," said Sanjay Singh, Managing Director -- India, Akamai Technologies. "With Configuration Manager, we've further extended our time-to-value advantage for accelerating enterprise applications such as SAP®, Oracle® and Microsoft® by simplifying the application configuration and integration process. We've also created the Akamai application staging network where customers can test configuration changes with full version control and at no additional cost, ensuring their end users are not adversely affected when changes go live."

"Akamai has taken an important and valuable step with Configuration Manager," said Peter Christy, Principal, Internet Research Group. "By formalizing the configuration of the many Akamai application acceleration services into a well-defined metadata representation, Akamai has provided the means by which customers can specify, adapt, replicate and deploy those optimizations that deliver the most effective outcome on their specific applications, as well as take advantage of best-practices learning from Akamai. The use of metadata also greatly simplifies testing and staging to production. As icing on the cake, Akamai also provides an intuitive and easy to use visual tool for the construction and modification of these settings."

Configuration Manager is generally available today and at no additional cost to Akamai's Web Application Accelerator customers. Akamai Professional Services packages are available to customers opting for complete turnkey application integration, testing and tuning.

Akamai's Web Application Accelerator service leverages Akamai's globally-deployed platform to deliver consistent, improved application performance for enterprise customers and SaaS providers. Akamai accelerates customers' dynamic Web applications using a number of unique techniques including dynamic mapping, route optimization, advanced communications protocols and connection optimization technology. As a result, Akamai customers enjoy increased user adoption of Web-enabled applications for greater productivity and decreased support costs.