Since launching the Akamai Connector for Varnish we have heard the question a number of times: “I don't use Varnish, but tell me why I should. What is the benefit of using Varnish with Akamai?"

The Akamai Connector for Varnish, or the components that led to its development, has already been tested on real-life turf. When the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was gearing up to handle the additional swells of traffic associated with the 2014 FIFA World Cup, they were able to work with Akamai and Varnish to synchronize their Varnish cache at origin with the Akamai cache infrastructure. Once synchronization was achieved, page load speed improved markedly, loading at least 25% faster. Obviously this translated into improved user experiences.

A few months ago, we announced the Akamai Connector for Varnish. We released it on a limited scale to give users the chance to test it out and see what it could do for them. Now the release goes wide. All Akamai customers who also use Varnish can get the Akamai Connector for Varnish to leverage the scalability and performance of the Akamai platform within the familiar Varnish VCL interface.

Duplicative work is never a good idea. Especially not if your job is to ensure that your organization delivers content as fast, efficiently and securely as possible. If you are using Akamai and Varnish in combination for this purpose, your days of being frustrated by the fact that you have to manage your cache in two places (e.g. when changing your cache TTLs and purge settings) are over.