Small business▲+6Since September 2026: 2% → 8%, +6 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
8%from 2% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 5 pointsRank 9 → 3 of 77
Akamai · 2 categories · RankedAkamai Connected Cloud
68Judge labels
6First choices
8Negative labels
13 / 14Models named it
2Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.8, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
8% in Cloud hosting for small business buyers
Rank 15 of 85 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
0 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 12% of its 26 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Akamai Connected Cloud →By buyer segmentRead the same way at every buyer size.
Small business3 of 81
8%25 labels
accepted challenger
Mid-market15 of 85
0%26 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise28 of 44
0%7 labels
under the label threshold
In cloud hosting · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Akamai Connected Cloud for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud hosting | Cloud and infrastructure | 0% | 15 of 85 | 12% | 26 | accepted challenger | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Load balancers | Network and edge | 0% | 40 of 94 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by HAProxy at 29% |
Movement
Since September 2026, Akamai Connected Cloud held within the floor in all two categories: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · Cloud hosting · by segment
Mid-market=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 11 pointsRank 13 → 14 of 75
Enterprise▼−2Since September 2026: 2% → 0%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 2% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 9 pointsRank 6 → 37 of 41
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud hosting | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 13 → 15 of 85 |
| Load balancers | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 40 of 94, unchanged |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated Akamai Connected Cloud across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated Akamai Connected Cloud across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct10 labels1
Paraphrase6 labelsNone
Comparative14 labels1not counted in share
Budget-constrained13 labels3
Scale-constrained13 labels2
Negative12 labelsNone
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative68 labels in all, every segment counted; 6 of the 7 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“Solid mid-tier options like Linode (Akamai), DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Liquid Web also maintain strong reputations” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Cloud hosting · negative prompt · alternative
“offer high-performance, developer-first Virtual Private Servers (VPS) with highly predictable pricing models” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Cloud hosting · comparative prompt · alternative
“Other options include Akamai Cloud Computing, Loadbalancer.org Enterprise ADC, and Cloudflare Load Balancing” Llama 4 Maverick · Load balancers · budget prompt · alternative
“Starting at $5/month ... Strong hardware performance (dedicated CPU options)” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Cloud hosting · budget prompt · alternative
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“Has been described as the most unreliable with a UI and features that haven't evolved significantly, and poor customer service” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Cloud hosting · negative prompt · soft negative
“Avoid smaller ones like DO/Linode initially unless your IT team is small ... they suit startups better.” Grok 4.20 · Cloud hosting · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
“They lack the deep compliance certifications (like HIPAA or advanced government clearances)” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Cloud hosting · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Akamai Connected Cloud, over the 68 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Akamai Connected Cloud was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Akamai Connected Cloud, over the 68 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Akamai Connected Cloud was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Akamai Connected Cloud. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 56 of the 68 answers that named Akamai Connected Cloud and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
atlantic.net23
digitalocean.com23
hostingadvice.com22
hostinger.com12
hostscore.net12
techradar.com12
bluehost.com11
guideflow.com11
cybernews.com10
g2.com10
146 of the 146 domain citations in answers naming Akamai Connected Cloud came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
Where Akamai Connected Cloud stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.ShowHide
Search and answers
Where Akamai Connected Cloud stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimates- Searches for its name, Google
- 260 a month (“akamai connected cloud”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 0 a month
- Its own site
- It sits on Akamai's site (akamai.com), so there are no site figures for it alone
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
0%
rank 15 of 85 in cloud hosting
Segment leader
32%
Amazon Web Services
- First choices
- 6 across its categories
- Named in
- 68 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 56 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Names read as Akamai Connected Cloud
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Akamai Connected Cloud; a claim can dispute any of them.
Linode (Akamai) 9Linode 6DigitalOcean/Linode 2Linode (now Akamai) 2Akamai 1Akamai Cloud Computing 1Akamai Connected Cloud (formerly Linode) 1Akamai Linode 1Linode (now Akamai Connected Cloud) 1Linode / Akamai 1Linode/Akamai 1
Follow Akamai Connected Cloud
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
Akamai is the company behind Akamai Connected Cloud.ShowHide
The company
Akamai is the company behind Akamai Connected Cloud.
ShowHideOn record
Company recordsIn its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- Akamai Cloud Pulse delivers real-time insights into the performance, availability, and reliability of your cloud entities and infrastructure.
- For
- users of the Databases service
- Not stated on the pages read
- Price, starting price, free plan or trial, integrations, certifications, hosting, customers
What Akamai Connected Cloud's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/changelog/july-15-2025-akamai-cloud-pulse. A claimed page can correct any of them.
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Akamai Connected Cloud's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Akamai Connected Cloud, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for Akamai Connected Cloud by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Akamai Connected Cloud is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name Akamai Connected Cloud, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.