E-Commerce on the Edge of the Net

Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai Technologies Inc. was tapped by consumer
electronics retailer BestBuy.com Inc. for its flagship EdgeSuite e-business
service, which delivers dynamically generated Web content on the fly.

Akamai said its EdgeSuite service will enable BestBuy.com
to simplify its front-end infrastructure by off-loading traffic to Akamai’s
globally distributed network and reducing utilization of its back-end
servers.

BestBuy.com is a subsidiary of Minneapolis-based Best Buy Co. Inc. . Financial arrangements were not disclosed.

“A large majority of our Web site is created with dynamic content,” said Tom
Mundt, director of systems operations for BestBuy.com. “The Akamai EdgeSuite
service will enable us to more effectively cache that dynamic content on the
edge of the Internet, thus reducing the response time for our customers and
allowing us to scale back our … infrastructure.”

Site owners using EdgeSuite maintain a minimal “source” copy of the Web site
and EdgeSuite provides global delivery, load balancing and content storage.
It enables the generation
and delivery of dynamic content by constructing Web pages from component
pieces that can be targeted and delivered from locations optimized for each
end user.

Best Buy has 400 consumer goods retail stores nationwide and maintains a Web
presence for sales as well as interactive, online learning courses on
computer and digital technology products for its customers.

Akamai signed a similar deal last week with Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.
for its Web sites dealing with Gleevec, a new FDA-approved
treatment for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.