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A Bold New Approach to the Cloud

A Bold New Approach to the Cloud: Akamai Connected Cloud

Since Akamai’s acquisition of Linode in early 2022, we’ve been hard at work to bring the platforms together under one roof. With the announcement of Akamai Connected Cloud, Linode is now fully integrated into the Akamai brand. Going forward, Linode’s services will be referred to as Akamai’s cloud computing services.

What is Akamai Connected Cloud?

Akamai Connected Cloud is a massively distributed edge and cloud platform for cloud computing, security, and content delivery. Akamai’s cloud computing services include the essential compute, storage, networking, database, and container management cloud services required to build, deploy, and secure applications and workloads everywhere businesses connect online. The cloud computing services running on Akamai Connected Cloud enable companies to distribute workloads and applications across the continuum of computing — from core to edge — to meet the challenges of cost, performance, and scale that centralized cloud computing platforms present today.

Expanding our mission

The Linode mission was about accelerating innovation by making cloud computing simple, affordable, and accessible. That mission continues as part of Akamai’s bold new vision, now with the full breadth of services that developers need, running on one of the world’s most distributed cloud platforms. It also will give developers access to:

  • Three new enterprise-scale core cloud computing sites across the U.S. and Europe. Adding to the existing 11 cloud computing sites, the new sites will plug into the Akamai backbone — connecting them to the most distributed edge network on the planet. They also become the template for 10 additional core sites we plan to roll out across the globe throughout the year.
  • More than 50 cities in which we plan to begin rolling out distributed sites this year, to bring basic cloud computing capabilities into difficult-to-reach locations currently underserved by traditional cloud providers. These regions offer a subset of Akamai’s cloud computing services but are identical in terms of availability and performance.
  • Aggressive new cloud egress pricing that uses the power of Akamai’s network to drive down the cost of cloud egress by bringing CDN-like economics to cloud data transfer. The new egress pricing model is designed to result in significantly discounted egress rates relative to the hyperscalers and alternative cloud providers.
  • New ISO, SOC 2, and HIPAA standards compliance, available immediately.

Over the next few months, you’ll notice some cosmetic changes to your Linode experience — such as seeing the Akamai logo where the Linode logo appeared. We’re also working to improve the overall flow between the two sites to maintain the simplicity that developers have come to know from Linode as well as introduce both developers and enterprises to new services running on Akamai Connected Cloud. Over time, you’ll also notice other design and user experience improvements based on our product roadmap. For now, there are no changes to Linode’s social channels, so continue using them to communicate with us.

What won’t change is the price-performance, portability, and award-winning support that developers love. We appreciate the trust you put in us and we’re excited to help you build, secure, and deploy your modern applications on a cloud built for the future.


Comments (55)

  1. Author Photo

    Could you translate to human-speak?

    • tlambert

      XY: The Linode brand is now Akamai Connected Cloud! We’re getting bigger, with 3 new cloud computing sites in the near future and 10 more rolling out before the end of the year. And, we’re getting better, with low-cost egress (bandwith or network transfer) prices and new security compliance. You can still expect the same service and award-winning Customer Support we’ve provided for years. Feel free to open a support ticket if you have any questions.

      • Author Photo

        > we’re getting better, with low-cost egress (bandwith [sic] or network transfer) prices

        Are we to assume this equates to a potential reduction relative to current Linode prices? Is this instead wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing-equivalent marketing-speak?

        The original post only compares pricing improvements relative to “alternative cloud providers” (where Linode is already quite competitive).

        I’d wager many customers are more curious to know, in plain English, if they should expect their billed network usage to increase assuming equivalent consumption.

        Thanks!

        • tlambert

          Noah: The specifics on pricing have yet to be released, however, you should be able to find them on this blog once they’re available. As we mention:

          The new egress pricing model is designed to result in significantly discounted egress rates relative to the hyperscalers and alternative cloud providers.

          Cloud providers such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure are considered “hyperscalers”. We will continue to be as transparent and open as possible during the Akamai/Linode integration.

          • Author Photo

            Many thanks for your reply!

            I look forward to more information in the coming days then.

            Excited to see new functionality arrive based on the Akamai platform, enhanced with Linode’s more approachable touch.

  2. Author Photo

    Hi there,

    I created an account with you and verified it then I added my payment method correctly but you didn’t accept my account though. Is there anything I can do to get my account approved?

    Thanks

    • tlambert

      Hani: If you received a cancellation email when you signed for an account, we suggest reaching out to us via email at [email protected] to request a review. Be sure to include some account information in your message (name, username, etc.) along with the last 6 digits of the payment card you used to sign up. Keep in mind if we decide to uphold our previous decision, you will not receive a response from us. More information can be found in this post on our Community Questions site.

  3. Author Photo

    Here in Hawaii Akamai is easily understood. Used in Hawaiian Pidgin from Japanese for smart. So is a very smart brand!

  4. Author Photo

    End of an era.

  5. Author Photo

    Another possible title for this post could have been taken from this website: AKAMAI NUKES LINODE BRAND

    https://taoofmac.com/space/links/2023/02/15/0740

    Pretty sad.

    • Author Photo

      From my point of view, Akamai brand makes it easier for me to sell the idea of using Linode to my customers. I’m more worried about Akamai acquisition nuking something else about the Linode service than the brand. 🙂 I mean historically, when companies get acquired, their service rarely improves.

    • Author Photo
    • Author Photo

      I agree with this. I’ve trusted Linode for many years, and have been bitten in the past when a trusted host was acquired.

      Slapping the Akamai logo where it clearly looks out of place is likely the first in many future changes that will ruin Linode and it’s offering. Time to start shopping around for me.

      • Author Photo

        OMG AGREED! And I thought I was the ONLY person who noticed this!!! I mean seriously? Come on!!!

        If Akami can’t even take the FULL % MInutes it takes to correctly scale and place their logo properly?!?!? OMGGG LIKE WOW the freaking AUDACITY MAN. Holy Cow this TRULY SPELLS THE END for Linode my friends.

        This unfortunately is such a TIMELY and PERFECT example of the quality you can expect to see moving forward with Akami.

        So terribly tragic and truly, JUST PLAIN SAD. Sad to see one of the only last remaining loyal and faithful brands out there to leave us and go….

        Bye Bye Linode, WE ALREADY MISS YOU!!!!!

        CRaSh aNd BURn TiMe. :(((((((((((((((((((((

    • Author Photo

      Agreed. Akamai doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as Linode and is more difficult for me to pronounce >_<

      As much as Akamai won't like it, I think I'll still call them Linode, for the sake of my tongue.

  6. Author Photo

    Will the pricing of Linode increase after the change? Also what will happen to unused Linode account credit?

    • tlambert

      Hey Eric, we haven’t announced any pricing changes at this time. However, you can expect your unused Linode account credit to be valid until the expiration date or until you’ve used it up.

      • Author Photo

        Less than 10 days ago, they said no pricing changes are announced.

        What they were thinking was…

        Price increases…
        Hold My Beer.

        20% increases on nearly all hosting.
        100% increases on all ip addresses.

        They just set the new bar for bitter beer.

  7. Author Photo

    Will there be any impact on existing users? Can we continue to enjoy the old school Linode experience or we are fxcked up?

    • tlambert

      Hey zzq, the experience of using Akamai Connected Cloud will be the same as using Linode and you can expect the same service and award-winning support you’ve gotten used to over the years. As with anything, changes and improvements are likely to come in the future so keep an eye on the blog for new announcements.

  8. Author Photo

    • “Aggressive new cloud egress pricing that uses the power of Akamai’s network to drive down the cost of cloud egress by bringing CDN-like economics to cloud data transfer.

    If Linode customers wanted AWS, they’d be using AWS.

  9. Author Photo

    Pretty pissed about them nuking the brand name also. I love Linode and I love the reliability and knowledge they have. I hope it stays the same or I will probably have to go try out DigitalOcean.

  10. Author Photo

    I feel similarly to XY’s and Donovan’s comments in this thread.

    First, I ended up here after trying to make sense of the email I just received regarding “root password requirements” … which made little sense in the context of a “VM”-style linode (unless you’re somehow subverting my root password hash and/or watching every shell command I type).

    Second, after reading this, I also wondered about the future of the linode instance I’m running and whether I will be able to continue administering it as I have been as more so-called “cosmetic changes” are implemented (this never sounds good to me given the nonsense coming out of Apple, Google, and Microsoft).

    This blog post made me feel uncomfortable and confused — not encouraged and confident. Instead of buzzword soup, I’d really appreciate some good news and support for those of us doing our work (our “mission”) successfully in a more traditional linode environment.

    • tlambert

      Gil K. Hey Gil – I can assure you, we do not watch each shell command you type. When your root password is reset using Cloud Manager or the API, a call to the API is made which resets the password. The email you received is letting you know there are now some security requirements for new passwords.
      Regarding your existing instance, it’s not going anywhere unless you move it. You can expect the same service and support you received with Akamai Connected Cloud that you experienced with Linode. You can also expect some new and exciting improvements.

  11. Author Photo

    Everything would be fine if good technical support was provided.

    But my experience in less than 10 days as customer is really very poor. Tickets open without any answer for more than 4 days and so on.

    I know that Linode is a platform, and don’t require technical support regarding OS, etc, etc. But when things start to go wrong it would be great to have someone in the other side. And this does not happens!

    Unfortunately I will have to search again for another provider, because Linode (or Akamai?) don’t seem to work 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. 365 days per year.

    Very bad technical support, and when technicians answer us they only say that “the delay is because they care a lot for his customers”, so “they delay to make sure to provide the best answer possible”, and bla, bla, bla.

    • pwoods

      Hey Thaddeus – we are here 24/7. Our response time to tickets can fluctuate depending on the number of tickets we have open at any given time. We respond on a first-in, first-out basis. That said, we’re also available by phone for any urgent needs. The phone is the best way to get our eyes on a ticket or anything else you’d like addressed: 855-4-LINODE (855-454-6633), or Intl.: +1 609-380-7100.

  12. Author Photo

    This is sooooo important. I’m weary yet hopeful that Akamai will maintain the precedence Linode has set.

    “ What won’t change is the price-performance, portability, and award-winning support that developers love. We appreciate the trust you put in us and we’re excited to help you build, secure, and deploy your modern applications on a cloud built for the future.”

  13. Author Photo

    Hopefully you won’t screw this up like RackSpace did when they acquired SliceHost back in the days.

  14. Author Photo

    A very bad approach indeed. You could have setup a new domain, cloned all pages and apps, rename and rebrand completely, test and launch, then redirect this domain. If you are going to change one by one, it’s very confusing and unpredictable. Now logo is changed, what next?! When will green become blue, or will it become orange?!

  15. Author Photo

    Oh… Boy… Here we go!

    The bigger they get the less we seem to be wanting any part of it…

    I wish my crystal ball was not so clouded by a litany of big mergers predicated on corporate greed, fully engaged in crafty tactical strikes on their own consumers, diluting every bit of value that exist as the reasons for consuming their products in exchange for a few positive quarters as to improve the upward mobility and career options of a few short sighted yet excessively dominant execs…

    Only time will tell, but this doesn’t look promising…

    I will keep all options on the table…

  16. Author Photo

    I’ve been reviewing Linode and considering switching a chunk of our several thousand dollar a month spend with Google Cloud Platform over and I agree with Donovan’s summary in his blog:

    > “[Akamai] might pander to IT execs and decision makers, but engineers and tech people matter a lot in choosing this kind of service”

    The Akamai brand and takeover doesn’t elicit warm feelings from me. In fact, quite the opposite.

    I won’t claim to understand what they are trying to do from a marketing perspective, but it’s clear that their enterprise marketing lingo doesn’t align with what us small to mid-size customers are looking for. It reeks of enterprise lingo that’s commonly associated with increases in prices and decreases in service quality.

  17. Author Photo

    Was nice knowing you, Linode. Should have never sold out.

  18. Author Photo

    Linode has a great reputation. Why you’d want to throw away its good name (in both senses) I don’t know. This is a terrible idea.

    Guess its time I give digital ocean a try.

  19. Author Photo

    Been using Linode since 2009. We haven’t found a reason to move and I hope it stays that way.

    Now that Akamai is behind Linode, a CDN option is inevitable. Even Azure has Akamai as a CDN option, it seems backwards you need to go to a competitor just get access to your pay-as-you-go product.

  20. Author Photo

    A quand une solution grand public pour la Nouvelle Caledonie ? Akamai est déjà en présent en Nouvelle Caledonie pour Netflix, mais rien de disponible pour le public, que ce soit sur le site de Linode ou d’Akamai.

  21. Author Photo

    Very worrying and extremely negative feelings here too, The loss of the Linode brand is significant, and the rest of the statement does not bode well either. For a while i thought Linode would be the home for my systems and my clients, but now, i am really having other thoughts.

  22. Author Photo

    From the original blog post a year ago on acquisition:

    “For the immediate future, we will continue to operate as we always have. Akamai has no intention of changing what has made us successful.”

    A year later:

    “We’re getting rid of every mention of Linode and replacing it with Akamai.”

    The very brand is what made Linode successful.

    Why do companies that acquire other companies feel they have to “integrate” the companies. Why can’t they be run as different entities working together?

  23. Author Photo

    This is sad. Just keep the Linode brand. I thought I was on the wrong website.

  24. Author Photo

    Feels like MBAs are now firmly in control of Linode, er Akamai Cloud. Time to find a new VPS host.

  25. Author Photo

    Hello, I used your product several years ago and have my own account number, but now I can’t find the account name and password. How can I find it now, because he is still withholding fees

  26. Author Photo

    Hopefully, the goal of this isn’t to kill. But I’m afraid it might happen anyway, just not in a way most people expect. Whenever I see an Akamai-related header in an http(s) response I literally want to rage-quit whatever integration I’m making at that time. Their anti-bot (and apparently human as well) system blocks the most random and stupid things possible, even Cloudflare isn’t that aggressive. I’m afraid that we might see more and more ToS related bullshit in Linode (accounts getting wrongfully terminated, random IPs getting blocked, etc)

  27. Author Photo

    Hi there,

    Thieves!!!!!!

    I created an account with you and verified it then I added my payment method correctly but you didn’t accept my account though. Is there anything I can do to stop you using my and others stolen data?

  28. Author Photo

    You really need to address your acceptable use policy on bullying and organizing premeditated attacks on people with your service over non-http protocols.

  29. Author Photo

    I have an account, but I forgot my email address! can you help me find it

  30. Author Photo

    The Akamai branding is pretty horrible. I hope the management and decisions are better than the beading, but this blog post doesn’t give me hope.

  31. Author Photo

    >> Over time, you’ll also notice other design and user experience improvements based on our product roadmap

    Where’s the roadmap? That should have a link. All this talk about serverless, kubernetes, etc, gives the illusion that a plain VPS full root access “standard linux installation” isn’t going to be in the long term roadmap as you transition to serverless technologies and move to app based containers.

    Is this true? How long are people going to be grandfathered in? It’s not fair to talk about a roadmap and not link to it.

  32. Author Photo

    You did WHAT?

    Akamai is just like Amazon, a bloated vacuum cleaner acquiring and killing anything that is a threat. Linode was by far the best hosting solution since their conception. Prioritizing speed and customer service for a fair price.

    AWS is crap especially when it comes to database instances. Latency was garbage. Internal speeds between DB and frontend was not even close to Linode cheapest unmanaged plan (like 20% output)

    Akamai backup solutions is overpriced garbage. Their web caching solution is a joke, there is no support and sometimes your page doesn’t update for days in a specific area while the rest of the world gets the new version. ZERO customer support.

    Akamai will start using Linodes resources for their customers and it’s game over. Akamai doesn’t make Linode better, however Linode will make Akamai better by distroying everything that was special about it. Sorry to say but this is the end of Linode.

  33. Author Photo

    I think and they won’t let me register

  34. Author Photo

    I can’t register I got cancel

  35. Author Photo

    Am finding it difficult to create my new account i keep get cancellation message on signup like “Hello,

    A recently created account with this email address was canceled by our automated systems. This was due to activity or patterns associated with fraudulent behavior. Additional attempts to sign up may also be rejected.

    Linode” this please do allow other region like Nigeria

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