Key concepts and terms

Familiarize yourself with these terms so you can more effectively manage Akamai products and services.

Term	Definition
CNAME	A record that specifies that a domain is an alias for another domain. Configure your DNS server so that requests for each hostname resolve to a corresponding edge hostname, referred to as the canonical name (CNAME). Edge servers across the Akamai network resolve edge hostnames to IP addresses.
CP code	Content Provider codes (CP codes) identify your traffic on the Akamai network for reporting, billing, and monitoring purposes.
Domain Name System (DNS)	Registry of domain names mapped to IP addresses. You can manage DNS Zones with the Edge DNS CLI.
Edge hostname	The DNS record that points to the optimal Akamai edge server, based on traceroute results that account for network traffic in real time.
Edge server	A machine within Akamai’s global distributed network. Learn more about the CDN.
Group	The primary mechanism for allowing or blocking user access to Control Center applications. Learn more about the access control model.
NOCC	Network Operations Command Center (NOCC) engineers monitor the globally distributed edge servers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Origin server	The server you publish your content to. This could be a local machine or a cloud repository, such as Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage.
Origin hostname	A DNS record that points to your origin server.
Property	A file specific to your domain that contains instructions for how the edge network processes requests, responses, and objects served over the distributed platform. Learn more about how to automate the deployment of Akamai property changes with the Property Manager CLI.
Reporting group	Reporting groups allow you to combine CP codes for billing purposes.