How it works

GTM is designed so that Internet users can more reliably get to your websites or any other IP application. It applies an Internet-centric approach to global load balancing to provide high site availability and responsiveness to online user requests. Unlike traditional hardware-based solutions that reside within the data center, Akamai’s GTM service is a fault-tolerant solution that makes intelligent routing decisions based on real-time data center performance health and global Internet conditions, routing user requests to the most appropriate data center using an optimized route for that user at that moment.

1. A user seeking to access a website or application causes the user’s browser to request the site’s IP address via the configured DNS resolver.

2. Using standard DNS procedures, the DNS resolver requests the IP address from the site’s authoritative name server (whether Akamai Edge DNS or a third-party name server).

3. The name server replies with a CNAME alias that points to Akamai’s GTM servers.

4. Using standard DNS procedures, the DNS resolver requests an optimized route from GTM for the user request, based on policy rules.

5. GTM replies with the list of IP addresses for servers at an optimal data center location, which could be an Akamai data center (if the site uses Akamai for delivery), a public cloud provider, or even an
   enterprise origin.

6. The resolver sends the correct IP address to the user’s browser.

7. The user is connected transparently to the requested website or application.