Guest: Prenil Kottayankandy
Companies: Akamai | Redpanda
Show Name: Cloud: Evolution
Topic: Edge Computing

Not all cloud partner programs are created equal. While many providers cast wide nets, Akamai’s Qualified Compute Partner Program (QCP) takes a fundamentally different approach: highly curated, strategically focused, and built around solutions that have already proven themselves at scale. In a market where enterprises face hundreds of cloud vendors and integration decisions, the ability to trust that a solution is “battle tested” becomes a competitive differentiator.

Prenil Kottayankandy, Director of Business Development at Akamai, recently broke down what makes QCP different from typical cloud partner programs. “It’s a highly curated partner program, and it’s very strategic to Akamai. We recruit best-in-class solutions and best-in-class providers to run, deploy, scale, and secure their applications on the Akamai platform,” he explained. The end goal is to provide customers with differentiated solutions—ones that have been validated in production environments.

The Value Proposition: Battle-Tested at Scale

For customers, the QCP designation carries weight. “If you’re buying a Qualified Computing Partner solution through Akamai, you know it’s battle-tested. You know it’s worked for the largest brands in the world and the biggest events,” Kottayankandy said. That validation matters when enterprises are evaluating vendors for mission-critical workloads, especially for cloud-native and edge-native applications where performance, scalability, and reliability are non-negotiable.

The program isn’t about volume—it’s about depth. With approximately 30 partners currently in QCP, Akamai focuses on recruiting providers that complement the platform’s strengths in distributed computing, edge deployment, and application security. Each partner goes through a vetting process to ensure their solutions integrate well with Akamai’s infrastructure and deliver measurable value to customers.

Access to 150,000+ Customers

From the partner perspective, QCP offers immediate access to Akamai’s extensive customer base: 6,000+ enterprise customers and 150,000 SMB customers. “The moment they are on the partner program, they have access to the Akamai customer base, all of whom Akamai has great relationships with,” Kottayankandy noted. For emerging companies like Redpanda—recently welcomed into the program—this access accelerates go-to-market strategies and shortens sales cycles.

The program creates what Kottayankandy describes as a “win-win situation for the Akamai platform, the partner, and the customer.” Partners gain distribution and credibility. Customers gain validated solutions. Akamai gains deeper platform stickiness and expands use cases for its cloud computing infrastructure.

Rocket-Ship Growth

Launched approximately three years ago, QCP has already demonstrated strong adoption. “About 600 to 700 customers are leveraging the solution from various different partners, and it’s been rocket-ship growth,” Kottayankandy shared. The program has become a critical component of Akamai’s cloud business strategy as enterprises increasingly look for integrated solutions rather than point products.

With Redpanda joining QCP, the focus on real-time data streaming and event-driven architectures adds another layer of capability to the program. As edge computing and cloud-native applications continue to evolve, the combination of Akamai’s distributed infrastructure and partners like Redpanda positions QCP to address emerging use cases around low-latency data processing and distributed workloads.

Looking Ahead

For enterprises evaluating cloud partners, the QCP model offers a signal: these solutions have been tested in production, validated at scale, and integrated with a platform handling some of the world’s most demanding workloads. As Kottayankandy put it, “We’re very excited to explore more customer use cases and challenges that we can solve together.”