Akamai Technologies, Inc. AKAM recently announced the expansion of its industry-leading Akamai Guardicore Segmentation and Enterprise Application Access solutions to further improve the performance, security and scalability of cloud environments. This is likely to support agentless enforcement for cloud-native resources in Amazon Web Services (“AWS”), the cloud computing services of Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN.
Key Features of AKAM’s Upgraded Guardicore Segmentation
The latest version of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation strengthens its already robust security capabilities. The new feature will allow organizations to visualize cloud workloads near-real-time through an interactive map, giving administrators a clearer view of network flows and application dependencies. This enhanced visibility is expected to bridge the gap between DevOps and SecOps teams, helping businesses govern cloud network security more effectively.
Akamai’s solution further benefits from a hybrid enforcement engine, which streamlines the process of defining network policy intent. The Guardicore Segmentation engine automatically determines whether to apply agent-based or agentless enforcement across different points in the network. This dynamic approach simplifies policy management and ensures that cloud security measures are tailored to the organization's specific needs.
As businesses continue to adopt cloud environments, Akamai's solutions ensure scalability and security without compromising performance. Data is kept within the cloud environment, and the solution architecture scales automatically to meet the demands of growing organizations. In addition, the company has integrated reputation analysis and DNS firewall capabilities into the solution. These features aim to reduce incident detection and response times, improving the overall security posture by quickly identifying potential threats and breaches.
AKAM’s Enterprise Application Access Upgrade
In addition to upgrading Guardicore Segmentation, Akamai has introduced improvements to its Enterprise Application Access product, which is part of the company’s Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) offerings.
The solution now includes edge transport, a feature that embeds performance optimization directly into the application path. This technology ensures reliable performance even in remote environments or locations with poor Internet connectivity, improving user experience when accessing critical business applications. Furthermore, introducing local points of presence (PoP) will likely enable organizations to apply ZTNA policies locally for in-office users, reducing the need to route traffic to the cloud PoP. This is expected to improve application response times and file download times by up to three times.
Does AKAM Stock Stand to Gain From the Expansion?
Akamai’s cloud-optimization solutions help organizations improve performance, increase availability and enhance the security of applications and key web assets delivered from data centers to the end user. The company expanded its cloud computing production by introducing Akamai Connected Cloud. This massively scaled edge network provides improved security and greater scalability to help businesses enhance their IT infrastructure.
Akamai’s continuous innovation in cloud security underscores its commitment to helping organizations protect their digital infrastructure while providing superior user experiences. These advancements are expected to generate incremental demand for Akamai’s solutions, leading to higher revenues. An improved financial performance is likely to propel the stock upward.
AKAM’s Stock Price Performance
Shares of Akamai have lost 22.8% over the past year against the industry’s growth of 27%.
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AKAM’s Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider
Akamai currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
A couple of better-ranked stocks in the broader industry have been discussed below.
Plexus Corp. PLXS sports a Zacks Rank of 1 (Strong Buy) at present. It is a leading provider of electronic contract manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers in a wide range of industries, including Healthcare/Life Sciences, Industrial and Aerospace/Defense market sectors. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
In the last reported quarter, PLXS delivered an earnings surprise of 20.92%.
Arista Networks, Inc. ANET carries a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy) at present. It supplies products to prestigious customers, including Fortune 500 global companies in markets such as cloud titans, enterprises, financials and specialty cloud service providers.
In the last reported quarter, ANET delivered an earnings surprise of 14.83%. It has a long-term growth expectation of 16%.
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