In an effort to further improve network performance, Sofia Connect today announced a network partnership with Akamai Technologies, Inc., the global leader in content delivery network (CDN) services. As part of the Akamai Accelerated Network Partner (AANP) Program, Akamai has deployed a server cluster to Sofia Connect's facilities in Sofia from where content will be delivered to Sofia Connect's customers and peering members of OM-NIX, a regional Internet Exchange Point in the Balkans affiliated to Sofia Connect.
 
“Through this partnership, Sofia Connect customers and the peering community at OM-NIX can benefit from even faster access to the global scale, reach and performance of the Akamai CDN,” said Christian Kaufmann, Senior Director Network Services at Akamai Technologies.
 
“Before when customers accessed content served by Akamai it would predominantly be delivered from Amsterdam. Now that this content comes from Sofia latency will be reduced by some 40ms while also removing bandwidth bottlenecks and increasing resilience.“ explains Yuliy Nushev,  Managing Director at Sofia Connect.
 
The Akamai Platform handles approximately 30% of the entire world’s web traffic, delivering content for the vast majority of top media, entertainment, retail, and technology web sites and companies.
 
Nushev adds: „Our collaboration with Akamai reflects the natural evolution of content delivery today driven by the need to address scalability issues and to bring content closer to the eyeballs.“
 
Akamai's deployment is intended to ensure that its Content Delivery Network perfectly serves Sofia Connect's network footprint covering the Balkans, the Caucasus and increasingly the Middle East.
 
All existing IP-transit customers of Sofia Connect and all peering members of OM-NIX will immediately benefit from the local availability of Akamai content.
 
 
About Sofia Connect
Sofia Connect is a leading wholesale carrier based in Sofia, Bulgaria providing connectivity services to carriers and business customers in the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East. Sofia Connect’s service portofolio covers the whole range from BGP transit, remote peering, managed bandwidth, wavelength services, down to dark fibre provision. With an upstream capacity in excess of 100Gbps Sofia Connect ranks among the biggest IP transit providers in the region.