Key Impacts
- Tripled e-learning sales
- Delivered content to worldwide users 3 times faster—taking page load times from 25 seconds to 3 seconds in some regions
- Reduced core bandwidth and server capacity by almost 60%
- Stabilized infrastructure costs and maintenance requirements
Global Knowledge is the largest privately held provider of training and enterprise learning services for information technology (IT) and management professionals. In 2001, when distance learning itself was still in its infancy, Global Knowledge realized that the very worldwide presence that was helping to build their business was limiting their e-learning delivery method—due to inconsistent online courseware delivery performance across worldwide geographies. Global Knowledge turned to Akamai in 2002 to deploy a solution that would guarantee fast delivery of Global Knowledge content—anywhere in the world, at any time. In addition to ensuring immediate worldwide access to all of its Web-based courses and content, Global Knowledge also had to accommodate the huge traffic spikes generated by marketing campaigns and the peak traffic demands related to training department deadlines.
Akamai's services took nearly 60 percent of the computing load off of Global Knowledge's origin server, delivering all course content and site traffic via the Akamai EdgePlatform. Overall, leveraging the Akamai Platform resulted in a worldwide reduction of page download times from approximately 9.5 seconds to just over 2 seconds—a 265 percent improvement that delivered content three times faster than the Global Knowledge origin server. With the Akamai solution in place, Global Knowledge enjoys a stable, high performance technical foundation to profitably grow its distance learning business.
"Web-delivered, self-paced training is the fastest growing courseware delivery method at Global Knowledge. Sales for that area of the business have tripled over the past three years, and Akamai, as our global content distribution partner, is a fundamental part of the product offering’s success."
—Chris Gosk, Vice President of E-Learning, Global Knowledge
