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Linode rebranded as Akamai’s cloud computing services

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Re: Linode rebranded as Akamai’s cloud computing services

#91

Post by raiyu »

LanternLight83 wrote: post #57

As an outsider, this feels absurd. Linode had so much good-will and brand recognition built up through their sponsorships and reps.

While Linode is very well known amongst a set of developers the cross-section of customers that overlap between Linode and Akamai is very tiny.

This acquisition was about selling a product to existing Akamai customers so branding it as an Akamai offering allows them to present this as an enterprise ready solution that their customers can trust immediately.

Akamai did $3.6B in trailing twelve month revenue, and even backing out $200MM (being generous here for Linode) that is $3.4B of revenue.

The bigger play for them is to mark up this as a high gross margin offering to their existing CDN customers where they need a bit of compute power to pair with their CDN offering.

Limelight Networks (throw back alert) was doing the same thing back in the day and they approached us (DigitalOcean) in 2012 looking to potentially partner with us so that we can use our software to build an internal white labelled cloud for them that they could resell to their customers.

This is seen as more of a brand extension through product acquisition under the Akamai umbrella rather than something like Microsoft buying Github where that is a service that is known globally by pretty much every developer and what they wanted was the brand and developer clout.

Here there was no real interest from Akamai in the brand, but simply in a robust enough product that they could resell into their existing customer base.

Re: Linode rebranded as Akamai’s cloud computing services

#92

Post by WirelessGigabit »

viraptor wrote: post #38
godzillabrennus wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The experience with them is very enterprisey and a few years ago very manual. When CloudFlare went all in on API management, Akamai required changing many things in the web panel. Their official terraform module only started in 2020! Their preferred onboarding is still extremely "talk to an expert" and "contact sales". I can't find a pricing page for their CDN. I'm not criticising their tech itself, but as far as bra…

Are you my colleague? I don't understand why part of our teams chose Akamai. The other ones who use Cloudflare just do API calls when they deploy.

The Akamai team needs to send an email, then 2 meetings going back and forth, staging, approval, and then go-live.

Re: Linode rebranded as Akamai’s cloud computing services

#93

Post by super256 »

echelon wrote: post #84
jay-barronville wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t tell you why you haven’t heard of Linode much, but yes, the Linode brand absolutely is well known. When I think Linode, I think developer, small consultancy, etc. When I think Akamai, I think enterprise. Completely different brands. It just seems like such a bizarre business decision to me for Akamai to throw a strong brand like that away just because they want to slap their name on the product instead. All i…

They're not the only ones. I consider myself up to date, and I had no idea Linode was in the VPS business. If I had to guess their mission, it sounds like Tailscale. [1] I've used Digital Ocean and all the big cloud providers. Vercel, Netlify, Heroku. Haven't touched Akamai, but I certainly know of it. [1] https://pixelastic.github.io/pokemonorbigdata/

Linode is better comparable to Vultr, UpCloud and DO, rather than the serverless stuff at Netlify and Vercel. :)

Re: Linode rebranded as Akamai’s cloud computing services

#95

Post by 0xDEF »

twblalock wrote: post #46
jay-barronville wrote: post #31

The Linode brand is so well known by developers. Why in the world would Akamai risk the brand any further than they already have like this?

Is it really well known? I've only ever heard of Linode because they sponsored some Youtube videos. I've never heard it mentioned in a professional setting as a developer. On the contrary, Akamai is incredibly well known.

Akamai still has an Oracle/IBM-like reputation. One of the companies that for many years didn't have a sign up page. Instead they wanted anyone who is interested to call their sales people.

Re: Linode rebranded as Akamai’s cloud computing services

#96

Post by johnnylambada »

echelon wrote: post #84
jay-barronville wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t tell you why you haven’t heard of Linode much, but yes, the Linode brand absolutely is well known. When I think Linode, I think developer, small consultancy, etc. When I think Akamai, I think enterprise. Completely different brands. It just seems like such a bizarre business decision to me for Akamai to throw a strong brand like that away just because they want to slap their name on the product instead. All i…

They're not the only ones. I consider myself up to date, and I had no idea Linode was in the VPS business. If I had to guess their mission, it sounds like Tailscale. [1] I've used Digital Ocean and all the big cloud providers. Vercel, Netlify, Heroku. Haven't touched Akamai, but I certainly know of it. [1] https://pixelastic.github.io/pokemonorbigdata/

Linode has been around forever and were once one of the few games in town. They were into cloud computing years even AWS was. A lot of, er, elder statesman developers remember them from way back then. So if you’ve gotten into the game less than 15 years ago, it makes sense that you may not have heard of them.

Re: Linode rebranded as Akamai’s cloud computing services

#97

Post by JeremyNT »

rablackburn wrote: post #16

I’m curious to the reasoning behind a decision like this. Part of what Akamai bought was the Linode brand name. Anecdotally as a user Linode’s brand seems to have a fair bit of value and positive reputation. Havent they just written off a non-trivial amount of value from what they just acquired? Or is it as simple as they really want brand consistency?

It's strange how the brand means so much. They've made it obvious to me that I (small time solo developer but long time Linode customer) am not their target market now.

I was uncertain I would keep using them after the acquisition, but oddly (and despite no technical changes) this has convinced me I need to leave. The only associations I have with the Akamai brand are "enterprise" and "overpriced."

Re: Linode rebranded as Akamai’s cloud computing services

#98

Post by wankle »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #14

What’s a good alternative for Linode these days? I just want a vps where I can install Debian, be root, and have a web and email server. A 4gb Linode has been enough for my needs for years.

I liked Linode but moved to AWS Lightsail several years ago. I like it, simple pricing, I use Google Domains though Lightsail gives you some with the VPS. I don't like the cloud pricing of Route53 which is why I use Google Domains. Otherwise I like the VPS style nature of Lightsail. For my own self-hosting, it's all I need.

The downsides to Lightsail are highlighted in their article: https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/light...

Re: Linode rebranded as Akamai’s cloud computing services

#99

Post by tomxor »

echelon wrote: post #84
jay-barronville wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t tell you why you haven’t heard of Linode much, but yes, the Linode brand absolutely is well known. When I think Linode, I think developer, small consultancy, etc. When I think Akamai, I think enterprise. Completely different brands. It just seems like such a bizarre business decision to me for Akamai to throw a strong brand like that away just because they want to slap their name on the product instead. All i…

They're not the only ones. I consider myself up to date, and I had no idea Linode was in the VPS business. If I had to guess their mission, it sounds like Tailscale. [1] I've used Digital Ocean and all the big cloud providers. Vercel, Netlify, Heroku. Haven't touched Akamai, but I certainly know of it. [1] https://pixelastic.github.io/pokemonorbigdata/

Linode was around before all of those. They were there at the beginning of "cloud".

Re: Linode rebranded as Akamai’s cloud computing services

#100

Post by throwawaaarrgh »

I'm hoping this means they will finally build a cloud product that can compete, but if the same management is there, probably not. What a sad product lineup and UX. DO, Hetzner, etc have much better products. But nerds love pushing buttons and looking at stats, so somehow Linode's limited functionality and constant maintenance-induced downtime don't seem to faze them. Brands are so weird.

If they wanted to, they could automate OpenStack clusters, give people admin over a fully featured open source private cloud, and charge per hour. A few providers (mostly in Europe) have done it and it's an amazing experience. But I guess nobody thinks there's a market for an AWS/GCP/Azure competitor, and charging for a month at a time is more stable money.

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