Akamai unveils managed service to optimise API performance
Akamai has announced a managed service for API performance, designed to provide businesses with continuous optimisation, monitoring, and support across their digital API environments.
The new service, Managed Service for API Performance, is powered by APIContext and brings together proactive testing, expert analysis, and tailored improvement plans. The solution is intended to help organisations address challenges presented by complex, multicloud API deployments-ensuring speed, reliability, and regulatory compliance.
API reliance
Businesses are becoming more reliant on APIs for the delivery of critical digital services. As a result, performance management of APIs has grown in importance and complexity, particularly as organisations operate in environments with rapidly changing security and compliance requirements.
Unlike standard infrastructure monitoring tools, API environments typically require more specialised oversight. These specialised needs include managing workflow integrity, authentication protocols, compliance with regulatory frameworks, and maintaining robust global infrastructure.
Service features
Managed Service for API Performance offers round-the-clock monitoring and incident response. Synthetic testing on a global scale is integrated with incident validation by experts to ensure operational continuity and efficiency for APIs. This approach can help augment the work of existing IT staff, providing additional assurance for critical digital services.
Organisations using the service receive tailored action plans and executive-level reports, which highlight metrics on API health, performance trends, and business impact. These recommendations are updated in line with changing operational environments, allowing for continuous refinement of alerting sensitivities and workflow design.
According to Akamai, the managed service includes in-depth analysis by specialist analysts who identify underlying performance issues such as unanticipated slowdowns, schema mismatches, and endpoint failures. Findings are presented in clear reports designed to assist IT and compliance teams with actionable insight.
The monitoring covers comprehensive performance parameters-ranging from the identification of regional and network-based anomalies to validation against OpenAPI specifications and industry regulations. Synthetic checks operate continuously and can trigger immediate alerts and investigations in case of detected interruptions.
The service also provides visibility into multicloud environments, including DNS and SSL configuration monitoring and an examination of the full internet delivery chain. This is intended to aid organisations in pinpointing performance bottlenecks from the infrastructure's origin to the end user.
Compliance and regulatory frameworks
In response to increasing regulatory scrutiny on digital business operations, the service establishes performance and compliance baselines and enables integration with existing performance monitoring tools. This allows for more comprehensive correlation and insight across enterprise observability stacks.
APIContext, the service's underlying platform, is used to monitor both API performance and conformance against requirements set by frameworks such as DORA, NIS2, MAS TRM, and SEC SCI. The service creates an auditable and tamper-proof log of every synthetic call, establishing full traceability for uptime, response integrity, and adherence to standards. These records are designed to provide compliance officers with clear proof for regulatory audits or inquiries.
Industry perspectives
"APIs are now the heartbeat of business. Keeping them fast, resilient, and standards-aligned is a competitive advantage. With Akamai Managed Service for API Performance, users gain a partner dedicated to anticipating issues, accelerating response, and optimizing performance across the digital ecosystem," said Patrick Sullivan, CTO of Security Strategy at Akamai.
Speaking on the growing importance of resiliency in technical operations, Mayur Upadhyaya, CEO of APIContext, noted:
"With resilience requirements becoming more prominent, uptime is now a business imperative. APIs sit at the heart of digital services, and their performance directly shapes customer experience and digital experience alike. Working with Akamai, we're enabling enterprises to meet these demands with confidence."
Service goals
Akamai states that the introduction of this managed service expands on its existing capabilities in API security, with an aim to shift organisational focus from routine API upkeep to business outcomes and user experiences. Businesses will be able to rely on dedicated experts for the continuous tuning of API environments.
