SAVVIS, Akamai Announcements Highlight Content as the Centerpiece of Managed Network Services
When you have tons of bandwidth and storage but a dearth of people planning to use it, what's the best thing to do? Fill it with content, according to two high-powered networking companies aiming to add a new level of value to their technology services. SAVVIS aims to target the media services market with an encompassing range of media creation, digital asset management, and content distribution delivered as a "Managed Utility Service", according to their announcement. Meanwhile Akamai, which springs from media services, says in its announcement that it is targeting content and applications distribution and management at the enterprise level via the Internet. Managed network services are an interesting and increasingly important example of the melding of content and related technologies to introduce new levels of content services enhanced by both the network and the environment into which a network connects. While not playing the role of aggregators in the strictest sense, managed network services are nevertheless providing common access to both content and technology services that facilitate the use of content in specific work settings. Yesterday's "big pipe" has become today's "big network", blending access, functionality and content in a sophisticated, cost-effective array of services.