Akamai and Science City Partner For Testing EdgeSuite, Akamai's Next-Generation Content Delivery Technology

Contacts:
Pascal Caillerez Rumeur Publique 33.1.56.97.20.00 pascal@rp-net.com	--or--	Severine Godet Rumeur Publique 33.1.56.97.20.00 severine@rp-net.com
Bernard Seite GM France and Southern Europe Akamai Technologies 33.1.47.55.74.18 bseite@akamai.com

The Cite des Sciences (Science City) in Paris, whose site has been Akamaized for a year was a forerunner in Europe in choosing Akamai's new EdgeSuite technology

Paris, April 6, 2001. For the first time in Europe, Akamai Technologies, Inc., the leading Content Delivery Service Provider (CDSP),, and the Cite des Sciences are demonstrating together the efficiency and simplicity of EdgeSuite^SM, Akamai's new edge technology for ensuring total site availability, dramatic savings on infrastructure and exceptional scalability.

EdgeSuite allows transmission of a complete Web site (text, images, audio, video), local and global load balancing of the site and intelligent content routing through the Internet. EdgeSuite includes a unique system for dynamically assembling content on Akamai's world network of more than 9,700 proprietary edge servers. It facilitates content personalization for the net surfer and edge availability, even for the most dynamic pages. With EdgeSuite, businesses can benefit by outsourcing delivery management to Akamai to grow their online activity transparently, with improved browsing ease for the net surfer, and without having to invest their time and resources in infrastructure. In addition, EdgeSuite ensures a site experiences maximum uptime, while enabling scalability to cater for exceptional events such as promotions, media communications, etc. EdgeSuite is integrated in a site very easily in a single operation. Akamai also supplies traffic management tools to guarantee accurate, flexible content monitoring, as well as reporting tools for detailed analysis of hits from anywhere in the world.

"One of the missions of Cite des Sciences is to make Science media-friendly and accessible to as many people as possible," explains Benjamin Benita, Web master of the Cite des Sciences site. "This mission also concerns networks, especially the Web. Technique must not be a limiting factor for access to the content of a site. The Cite is therefore doing everything it can to reduce the time required to download the pages of its site."

The Cite des Sciences has been using the technology proposed by Akamai for a year to Akamaize the first pages of its services, including the home page in Flash technology. "We reduced the home page display time significantly," says Mr. Benita. Concerning video on demand (VOD), almost all the videos of the site (more than 250) also benefit from Akamai's services. Live video is not forgotten: "Whenever we can use the Akamai network, we do. All the live events of the Internet Festival held at the Cite at the beginning of March were broadcast via Akamai from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM for three days at low speed (28-56 K onstream) and high speed (150 K), without any problems!" exclaims Mr. Benita with satisfaction.

The Cite is now working on overhauling its Internet site through decentralization and is counting on EdgeSuite to facilitate this change. "With our internal Web production activities intensifying, it is essential for us to decentralize acquisition of the data supplying the site. In regards to site administration, the overhaul is based to a large extent on this idea. I believe that the simplicity of the publication processes is a key for acceptance of the Web in a company. Akamaization must therefore be as automatic as possible and not always require my intervention whenever a content producer (internal or external) publishes data. With EdgeSuite, I know that I will have to make some settings on the server from time to time, but that's all," explains Mr. Benita. "We can decentralize and continue to work toward making our content as easily accessible as possible, with handling of HTML as an added bonus."

"EdgeSuite is more than just a repackaging of Akamai's initial offering, it is a new approach to acceleration of Web sites," explains Bernard Seite, General Manager Akamai France and Southern Europe. "We are proud of being able demonstrate this with Cite des Sciences, who immediately understood the potential of this technology revolution."

About CITE DES SCIENCES
The Cite des Sciences et de l'Industrie (City of Science and Industry) is located in La Villette Park, Porte de la Villette, in Paris. It is the largest science and technology popularization center in Europe and definitely one of the most innovative. It is more than just a museum, it is an exhibition, documentation and communication center. The Cite presents the development of science, technology and industrial know-how. It allows visitors to gain a hands-on understanding of science and technology today, and to discover and prepare the world of tomorrow. Exhibits, shows, services, and multiple complementary activities make it a genuine city, active, inventive, animated. Responsive to current events, with a strong image of balance and objectivity, the Cite has the ambition of being a forum of the future where citizens, scientists, industrialists and government officials come together to confront their views and build tomorrow's society. It hosts 3.5 million visitors annually, which places it among the leading Parisian cultural institutions for the number of visits. In addition, each year, some 500,000 people visit its exhibits elsewhere in France and 300,000 abroad. The Cite developed a Web site, www.cite-sciences.fr, to promote external communication of the rich content it proposes. Highly interactive, this site gives visitors practical information, such as schedules and prices, to prepare their visit and discover the exhibits and events proposed. The site also gives access to activities in various scientific fields, interactive manipulations, video films, online contributions and news groups, etc.

About AKAMAI
Akamai (Nasdaq code: AKAM) is the leading Content Delivery Service Provider, serving more than 3,600 customers worldwide. Akamai has the broadest deployment of servers for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with more than 9,700 servers in 56 countries directly connected within over 650 different telecommunications networks.

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the dependence on Akamai's Internet content delivery service, a failure of its network infrastructure, the complexity of its service and the networks on which the service is deployed, the failure to obtain access to transmission capacity and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.