5:00 PM -- No one quite knows how to capitalize off of network outages the way that Akamai does.

That much was made clear today when the company issued a press release and link to a video of network traffic being delayed due to subsea cable cuts in the Middle East. (See Akamai Views Cable Cuts, Subsea Cable Outage Hits Mideast, India, Fourth Subsea Cable Down in Middle East, and Carriers Repairing Middle East Cables.)

While the company's network analysis is impressive -- and recall, it previewed such tools before, with a "global Internet health check" last year -- it's interesting to see it being used to hawk the company's services this way. (See Akamai Shows Internet Health.)

Watch the video and you'll see a series of colored lines indicating heightened levels of latency between global connection points:

Of course, read down to the bottom of the press release and the real message becomes clear: Businesses could have totally avoided the network disruption -- if only they had turned to Akamai rather than leaving their mission-critical enterprise services up to chance.

The global Internet can be a cruel mistress, Akamai tells us. If you're going to get into bed with her, at least use the protection of SureRoute technology!

— Ryan Lawler, Reporter, Light Reading