Akamai CDN vs. IBM NS1 Connect

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Akamai CDN
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Akamai Technologies, headquartered in Boston, offers Akamai Connected Cloud, a content delivery network (CDN) with a variety of services used to guarantee application, API, and media delivery.N/A
IBM NS1 Connect
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
IBM NS1 Connect is a managed service for authoritative DNS and traffic steering designed to improve application performance and network resilience.
$250
per month
Pricing
Akamai CDNIBM NS1 Connect
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
IBM NS1 Connect Essentials
USD 250*
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Akamai CDNIBM NS1 Connect
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsOptions include IBM NS1 CONNECT FREE DEVELOPER ACCOUNT The IBM® NS1 Connect® free developer account showcases IBM's authoritative DNS capabilities, allowing users to start using it in minutes. Although traffic scale is limited, the full API is available for unlimited usage. It can be used in production as a primary or secondary solution. IBM NS1 CONNECT ESSENTIALS Scaled for growing businesses, the Essentials plan offers features to ensure fast, reliable connections to end-users. Available for purchase on IBM.com or AWS. IBM NS1 CONNECT PREMIUM NS1 Connect Premium is for businesses needing scalable authoritative DNS. Pricing is based on query volume and DNS records. Additional services are also priced through query volume. Enterprise plans offer customizable support and professional services. *(Calculated prices are estimates provided for planning purposes only taking into account potential IBM discounts, and are not a formal offer from IBM or an IBM Business Partner. The estimation may reflect the total discounted price. Certain factors such as configuration, add-ons, or additional requirements will affect final price. IBM Business Partners set and provide their own IBM NS1 Price Estimator pricing, and neither IBM nor IBM Business Partners are bound by the provided estimate.)
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Akamai CDNIBM NS1 Connect
Best Alternatives
Akamai CDNIBM NS1 Connect
Small Businesses
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 8.9 out of 10
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 8.9 out of 10
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Amazon CloudFront
Amazon CloudFront
Score 7.8 out of 10
Google Cloud DNS
Google Cloud DNS
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Akamai CDNIBM NS1 Connect
Likelihood to Recommend
7.3
(16 ratings)
8.1
(8 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.5
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Akamai CDNIBM NS1 Connect
Likelihood to Recommend
Akamai
Akamai is a well-established brand name with a great product. It meets and many time exceeds the needs for global content delivery and security management layer at the edge. Fine grain security tuning seems cumbersome as the definition of the app keeps changing. It also requires an investment of time for the setup which doesn't necessarily make sense for smaller scale scenarios. Some products offered by AWS, Azure or the Google Cloud can be more tightly integrated with cloud provider offerings thus easier to configure.
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IBM
IBM NS1 Connect is suitable for businesses requiring high application availability, improved performance, and advanced traffic steering capabilities, especially in complex multi-cloud environments as it ensures maximum uptime. It's less appropriate for smaller teams without DNS expertise or those with basic DNS needs where a simpler, less feature-rich solution might suffice.
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Pros
Akamai
  • Content offloading - once rules are set up within Akamai you don't need to even think about how many images or large JavaScript or CSS files (for example) are being served from your own estate, Akamai takes care of it all via rules that are quick, easy and flexible.
  • Page caching - for pages that don't change very often Akamai allows you to set up rules, quickly and easily, to serve up your page content for you, which takes even more load away from your origin servers.
  • Quick rollback - the Akamai system allows easy testing of rules and changes via a staging system, and also offers a quick rollback option, which is perfect for the rare occasions when something has been set up incorrectly.
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IBM
  • Makes for a fast website loading.
  • Enhanced the user interface.
  • Economical cost.
  • It is the best RUL.
  • DNS response time.
  • Routing the base location of the user.
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Cons
Akamai
  • The interface in their control centre could be a bit more user-friendly with some of the settings in places that you wouldn't expect them to be. The search offsets this problem to an extent but it's still sometimes slower than you'd like to find what you are looking for.
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IBM
  • User Experience - Please make it more easy to use for Admins
  • Also add some more details in the reference documents
  • Try if they can offer a monitoring tool
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Usability
Akamai
No answers on this topic
IBM
The interface can be better. As of now, it is a bit difficult to manage multiple records at the same time or to test the rules effectively. The data reporting is also not as great as we expect with tools of today’s maturity.
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Support Rating
Akamai
Their support documents are excellent and provide a lot of useful information for all their services. The only reason I didn't give them a 10 is that the time it takes for them to respond to an issue could be slightly faster.
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IBM
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Akamai
We've used -- and considered -- a whole number of CDN offerings. The good news is that almost all of the CDN products on the market are terrific, and will pay for themselves via increased customer satisfaction and lower monthly hosting bills. For some cases, we're still more likely to suggest CloudFlare (which has a free tier) or an integrated offering from a cloud provider, like Cloudfront.
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IBM
It's definitely because of automation capabilities and flexibility that it offers. It also offers much more control over how traffic is routed when compared with Google Cloud DNS. The advance features are once again missing in Google Cloud DNS when compared with IBM NS1 Connect. The operational efficiency is also great when compared with its competitors.
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Return on Investment
Akamai
  • Akamai RoI improved over a period of times since it comes with heavy costs, however global deliveries in over 100 counties and global web platforms usage helps improve RoI
  • With the complex UI challenges, ROI could be impacted negatively when you have to invest in operations and time.
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IBM
  • The cost was reasonable for a solution that is well known
  • Having hosted DNS saves us money on maintenance
  • Reports give us critical insight into our domains and how often they are used.
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ScreenShots

IBM NS1 Connect Screenshots

Screenshot of the IBM NS1 Connect home page