When was the last time you closely examined your cloud bills? With businesses spending millions on public cloud services annually and facing unpredictable cost growth, managing cloud costs has become a top priority for IT leaders. Worldwide cloud spending is projected to surpass $1 trillion in 2024, highlighting the need for effective cost control.

Akamai, a company known for its operational efficiency and strong revenue growth, didn't just react to escalating cloud costs. It launched a strategic initiative that was a bold move, a vision for the future. Despite facing significant increases in third-party cloud spend, Akamai acted, creating Project Cirrus, a strategic initiative aimed at migrating third-party cloud workloads to Akamai's distributed cloud platform.

Project Cirrus focused on three primary objectives: optimizing capital allocation and strategic investments, ensuring financial resilience, and supporting digital transformation. By addressing these areas, Akamai reduced its public cloud costs by 40% in one year, with an expected 70% overall cost savings by the end of 2024. Additionally, data pipeline latency decreased by 80%, and overall workload performance increased by 70%.

One key driver behind Akamai's results is its adoption of a distributed cloud model. Unlike traditional centralized cloud models, this innovative approach enables Akamai to scale services to meet demand exactly where it exists, enhancing performance and reducing latency. This is not just a trend, but the future of cloud computing, and Akamai is leading the way.

Distributed computing has emerged as a direct response to the evolving needs of businesses across industries. As customer demands shift, enterprises are moving away from merely using the cloud to accelerate time to market and scaling services. Today, the focus is on expanding reach into specific locations, enabling a more tailored and responsive user experience. With a distributed cloud model, developers gain the flexibility to optimize network calls, place microservices strategically, and localize decision-making, all while maintaining control and flexibility.

A distributed cloud approach is crucial for companies looking to optimize cloud costs and performance. By utilizing Akamai Connected Cloud, with 4,200+ edge PoPs and 1,200+ networks in more than 130 countries, Akamai was able to place virtual machines and data storage closer to end users. This proximity improved service consistency and ensured critical SLAs were met, particularly in latency-sensitive applications like financial transactions.

Akamai’s journey underscores the importance of re-evaluating cloud spend and the potential benefits of distributed cloud computing. The company’s white paper, "How Akamai Slashed Its Public Cloud Costs by 40%," provides a comprehensive guide for organizations seeking to manage their cloud expenses more effectively. The white paper outlines five key steps for optimizing public cloud spend while enhancing application performance, including understanding the total cost of cloud-native workflows and avoiding vendor lock-in. It's time to take control of your cloud costs.

As businesses navigate the complexities of cloud computing, Akamai's success offers a blueprint for substantial cost savings and improved performance. Read the full white paper for a deeper understanding of how to gain control over cloud costs and drive efficiency.