Akamai, NetIQ Debut Web Reporting Service

Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai Technologies Inc. and Portland, Ore.’s NetIQ
Corp. Tuesday penned a strategic alliance in which the two firms agreed to
fuse their technologies to create a real-time Web reporting service.

Spearheaded by Akamai and titled SiteWise, the service integrates NetIQ’s
WebTrends Live technology to cater to marketing executives, Internet
business managers, Web developers, and IT professionals. Simply, it acts as
a kind of virtual census taker to provide insight into the behavior and
preferences of Web site visitors, including the ability to track the
effectiveness of marketing campaigns, real-time feedback on new and
returning visitors and analysis of which areas of the site are driving the
most traffic.

The SiteWise service, which will rely chiefly on NetIQ’s tracking abilities,
is also designed to become a major complement to Akamai’s EdgeSuite
offering, which offers content delivery requirements for whole Web site
delivery, dynamic page assembly, streaming media delivery, geo-location and
personalization, local and global load balancing and business intelligence.

As an additional component of the alliance, NetIQ will incorporate Akamai’s
content delivery and geo-location services to enhance the performance and
functionality of WebTrends Live and WebTrends software.

Web businesses are seeking these shades of input, according to research firm
Aberdeen Group, which found that the total market for Web analytics is
expected to grow to more than $4 billion in 2004. The market for
service-based Web analytics, as tapped with products like SiteWise, is
expected to reach $500 million in 2003.

John Shumway, general manager of platform services at Akamai has a theory
why so many Web frims are seeking such analytical services.

“As IT budgets come under further scrutiny, business intelligence
capabilities are essential to help customers better target their spending,”
said Shumway.

The Akamai SiteWise service is available immediately with Akamai’s EdgeSuite
offering, and can also be purchased independently of other Akamai services.
Prices vary upon individual needs. SiteWise can be provisioned within hours
and has no ongoing requirements from IT.