September 19, 2003 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Akamai Technologies (akamai.com), a provider of e-business infrastructure technologies, said yesterday that AWS Convergence Technologies, Inc. (aws.com), which owns and operates the largest network of weather stations in the world, had deployed Akamai’s EdgeSuite dynamic content assembly service to deliver up-to-date weather information to communities along the mid-Atlantic coast.
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The mid-Atlantic coastal region has been hit particularly hard in recent days by the effects of Hurricane Isabel, which has now been downgraded to tropical storm status.
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When the hurricane initially began approaching the U.S., millions of users turned to AWS properties for news and weather information on Isabel, including WeatherBug , an online weather service, and WeatherNet, which provides real-time weather information to U.S. households and schools. AWS said it selected Akamai’s platform to dynamically assemble Web content.
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“Hurricane Isabel has the potential to affect millions and, based on our traffic stats, the end-user interest in our online weather services has been phenomenal,” said Christopher Sloop, vice president of engineering at AWS. “This demand, while exciting, proved that we could no longer manage events of such magnitude single-handedly.”
