How can domestic CDN providers quickly fill the gap left by Akamai's withdrawal? | Expert perspective

At the beginning of 2025, Akamai, a leading global CDN service provider, announced that it would completely cease operations in China on June 30, 2026. This news not only puts a large number of domestic internet companies and foreign trade companies that rely on its services under the urgent challenge of business migration, but also triggers in-depth thinking in the technology field about changes in the global technology market landscape and localized response strategies.

“Akamai's withdrawal is ostensibly a change in the global technology market landscape, but it actually reflects the current major trend of geopolitical changes and global industrial chain restructuring. This change may also become an important turning point for China's internet technology to move towards independent innovation,” said Zhang Licheng, senior director of product R&D at Xinwang.

From the Russian internet shutdown to Akamai's withdrawal from China, the trend of global internet "fragmentation" seems to be becoming increasingly prominent. However, the globalization process of the digital economy will not stop because of this; instead, it highlights the urgency for enterprises to respond to geopolitical risks and adjust their technical architecture. Enterprises still need to optimize their technical architecture and enhance their global adaptability to achieve sustainable development in a complex environment.

Against this backdrop, Zhongqi Group has been well-prepared. As a company that focuses on independent research and development, Zhongqi Group has ensured that its technical architecture has the ability to efficiently respond to global changes through continuous investment in edge computing capabilities and global scheduling algorithms. At the same time, it actively cooperates with domestic and foreign service providers to expand the coverage of international nodes, ensuring that the company's overseas business can be "seamlessly connected" and helping customers achieve more stable global development.

As a leading global CDN service provider, Akamai has long held an important position in cross-border network acceleration and security protection in the Chinese market. Its services cover not only the efficiency of data distribution, but also the key support for enterprises going global in dealing with complex network environments. In the short term, many companies that rely on Akamai's technology will face problems such as performance fluctuations and increased migration costs, and the vacuum period of cross-border network optimization and security protection may also put pressure on some companies at the business level.

However, this "pain" is not insurmountable. The difficulty of technology migration lies in the degree of abstraction of technology design, which can be solved by increasing the degree of abstraction and standardization. By abstracting the CDN access entrance, the advantages seem to be at least two: first, enterprises can obtain the optimal cross-border access speed without directly paying attention to the technical details; second, integrating multiple service providers into a unified optimization layer makes the migration work almost "unnoticeable" for enterprises.

Therefore, Zhang Licheng suggests that enterprises should use the one-and-a-half-year transition period left by Akamai to choose more flexible technical solutions to achieve a smooth transition. For example, using intelligent scheduling algorithms to achieve optimal path selection for cross-border networks, so that user experience is not reduced due to the withdrawal of a single service provider. Integrating security protection services to ensure business stability and compliance, etc. This is not only a stopgap measure to deal with Akamai's withdrawal, but also a long-term strategy to improve the adaptability and resilience of the overall network architecture.

On the other hand, Akamai's withdrawal has, to some extent, created competitive space for the rapidly developing Chinese CDN market, especially providing a window period for cultivating the international market.

Currently, domestic leading manufacturers already have strong competitiveness in domestic business scenarios. However, in cross-border scenarios, their global network coverage and edge computing capabilities are still shortcomings. This is precisely the breakthrough point that domestic manufacturers need to focus on.

The demand for low latency and high stability in cross-border scenarios is forcing domestic manufacturers to accelerate technology iteration. For example, by cooperating with international node service providers to build distributed edge computing networks, or developing intelligent scheduling systems compatible with multiple protocols.

In addition, Akamai's withdrawal provides domestic CDN manufacturers with a crucial opportunity to accelerate independent research and development and technological innovation. This situation is similar to the "chip cutoff" incident in the past. Driven by external pressure, domestic CDN manufacturers will inevitably accelerate technological breakthroughs and industrial upgrades, promoting the process of independent and controllable core technologies.

In the face of changes in the international environment and potential risks of "technology cutoff", Zhongqi Group has made early preparations to ensure the stable operation of its business. To cope with uncertainty, Zhongqi Group has adopted three key strategies:

First, a diversified technology architecture, with backup plans for all key technologies, without relying on any single service provider.

Second, continuously improving independent R&D capabilities, such as optimizing algorithms, network performance, and security protection, to create a truly stable, secure, and reliable cross-border service solution.

Finally, strengthening international cooperation, cooperating with technical partners in different countries to diversify risks and improve overall resilience.

For example, in the CDN field, Zhongqi Group's independently developed CDN scheduling system can dynamically integrate domestic and foreign service providers, automatically selecting the fastest and most stable access path, so that enterprises do not need to pay attention to the underlying technology providers.

“Even if a certain node has a problem, the system can switch to a backup line in real time to ensure the stable operation of the business. At the same time, we have further built a multi-layer security protection system, including DDoS protection, vulnerability scanning, and web firewalls, to protect customers' data and business security,” Zhang Licheng introduced.

The Akamai incident has sounded a wake-up call for Chinese enterprises. In the digital wave, enterprises should not only pay attention to independent and controllable technology, but also establish a highly elastic technology architecture to cope with market changes and unexpected risks. This requires technical teams to shift from "firefighters" to "risk predictors", planning alternative solutions in advance, and even completing adjustments before problems occur, making enterprise customers completely "unaware". At the same time, technical personnel should stand from the customer's perspective, pay attention to actual needs, and make practical and effective innovations to help enterprises optimize efficiency and reduce costs.

From a macro perspective, Akamai's withdrawal is not only a severe test for domestic CDN manufacturers, but also a stress test for China's internet industry in the process of globalization. Under the short-term pain, if domestic manufacturers can take the opportunity of upgrading their technical architecture to accelerate the pace of independent innovation and promote the transformation from "dependence on external forces" to "independent control", they may be able to create new competitive advantages in the changing situation and create a more resilient future. After all, true global interconnection does not rely on a single giant, but on making technology a bridge without borders.