Akamai addresses mobile performance challenges

Akamai Technologies has upgraded its flagship web performance solution Akamai Ion to improve the platform’s mobile capabilities.

Ion is designed to accelerate the delivery of websites, web applications and mobile apps over fixed and cellular connections. The new Ion release focuses on overcoming key problem areas, which can result in much faster experiences for all users.

Ion offers optimizations that are designed to address the challenges imposed by the realities of today’s modern web. For example, the prevalent use of CSS in web design can result in poor mobile experiences because rendering web pages is dependent on when CSS files are delivered to browsers. Further, increasing amounts of third-party content, including links to social networks, advertising and sponsored content, can also create performance bottlenecks.

The introduction of new web protocols and standards, such as HTTP/2, also means site owners will need to deliver content to all users and ensure the best possible experience independent of whether users’ browsers support these protocols or not.

Ion also  features a number of new capabilities designed to deliver better and more consistent mobile experiences by addressing the unique challenges associated with mobile devices such as cellular connections and underpowered devices.

Ion offers improved browsing experiences by focusing on the ability to re-sequence CSS files, so that mobile audiences can view and interact with mobile web pages sooner, even over cellular connections.

Ion also introduces Preconnect to help prevent embedded third party URLs from becoming bottlenecks in web page performance by establishing connections with embedded third-party hosts even before the browser asks for those connections.

Akamai is now making HTTP/2 support broadly available to all customers – the first CDN to offer such broad availability of the new standard.

To help all users realize the best possible experience, the new version of Ion offers HTTP/2 aware Front End Optimizations (FEO). This means Ion can apply the most appropriate client-side performance optimizations whether the browser supports HTTP/2 or not – without the need for custom setup.