Akamai, BEA Package Software, Service

In its second partner pact in as many weeks, content delivery specialist Akamai Technologies has teamed with software giant BEA Systems , to help companies deliver Web-based
applications without buying costly infrastructure.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The agreement allows BEA’s WebLogic, a platform for e-business applications, to work with Akamai’s EdgeSuite, a service using a network of 12,000 servers to
bypass Internet traffic bottlenecks and send complex content such as streaming audio and video.

The systems support Edge Side Includes (ESI) mark-up language and the Java-based custom tag library for ESI (JESI). ESI is the proposed standard to define
Web page fragments, such as stock quotes and catalog prices, for aggregation, assembly and delivery at the Internet’s edge — closer to end users.

Mike Ruffolo, executive vice president of Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai, said combining the companies’ technologies enables companies to deliver
e-business applications “with increased speed, performance and reliability.”

BEA’s CTO Scott Dietzen said by that aligning with Akamai, the San Jose, Calif.-based company’s customers can “take advantage of in-place
infrastructure.” That could be an important selling point at a time when economic uncertainty has curbed capital spending on information technology (IT) systems.

Last week, Akamai and Compaq inked a vendor agreement, creating one-stop shopping for companies overhauling their
IT infrastructure.

The Houston computer giant’s services division will offer EdgeSuite, to companies that are installing Web-based hardware and software. In turn, Akamai will use
Compaq’s ProLiant servers to power its extensive server network.

Shares of AKAM opened up 0.01 to 3.04. BEAS gained 0.16, or 2 percent, to 9.44.