Microsoft, Akamai Team Up

REDMOND, Wash. and CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Microsoft Corp., the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions,and Akamai Technologies Inc., the leader in powering rich media, dynamictransactions and enterprise applications online, today announced plans toenable high-definition (HD) quality experiences on PCs. Akamai will releasea beta version of a new service, powered by Windows Server 2008 andMicrosoft Silverlight, to deliver rich Internet applications via theworld's largest HTTP edge network.

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Microsoft is introducing new Web server technology, called InternetInformation Services 7.0 (IIS7.0) Smooth Streaming, that gives consumersinstant start-up times and no buffering by adapting the quality of thevideo stream in real time based upon changing connectivity speed. Thisenables companies to boost brand awareness and advertising revenues byextending average viewing times. They can also benefit from unprecedentednetwork scalability using distributed HTTP-based Web servers.

"Smooth Streaming is an evolution of proven Silverlight technology thathas powered global online events," said Scott Guthrie, corporate vicepresident of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft. "Our objective hasalways been to provide a platform that enables next-generation mediaexperiences on the Web. Together with Akamai, we will take that a stepfurther by offering a consistently superior adaptive streaming experienceon a global scale."

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)