# Blog & Articles


## [Inference at the Edge: Why Latency-Sensitive AI Belongs Closer to Your Users](https://www.eknix.com/blog/inference-at-the-edge/)

Inference is now roughly two-thirds of all AI compute, and for real-time work (agents, personalization, fraud scoring, RAG), round-tripping every token to one distant hyperscaler region is latency your users feel. Here is why the edge is becoming an inference platform, what actually belongs there, and what to measure before you move a workload.

## [Build vs. Buy vs. Partner: The Real Decision for Enterprise Web Security](https://www.eknix.com/blog/build-vs-buy-vs-partner/)

The enterprise security decision is usually framed as build vs. buy. That binary leaves out the option most companies end up in by accident: someone else's tool, half-operated. Here's an honest, vendor-neutral framework for choosing between an in-house SOC, a licensed-and-self-run platform, and an operated partner, updated for the 2026 math of the talent gap, the AI SOC, hyper-volumetric DDoS, and accountability rules you can't outsource.

## [The Hidden Cost of a Slow Checkout: A Performance Audit Framework](https://www.eknix.com/blog/checkout-performance-audit/)

Your checkout works. That's exactly why nobody measures it. Here's a repeatable framework to audit checkout performance step by step, put a revenue figure on every slow second, and turn 'the site feels slow' into a prioritized fix list. Updated for INP-era Core Web Vitals and the arrival of agent-led checkout in 2026.

## [When Your Next Customer Is an AI Agent: Preparing Your Stack for Agentic Shopping](https://www.eknix.com/blog/agentic-commerce-2026/)

AI agents now do the shopping, and a benign one looks almost identical to fraud. Half a percentage point separates them. Here is why the old bot binary broke in 2026, and how to make your stack ready to serve, verify and win agent traffic instead of blocking it.

## [CDN Configuration Mistakes That Silently Slow Your Site](https://www.eknix.com/blog/cdn-configuration-mistakes/)

A green CDN dashboard hides the metric that decides whether your edge is working: cache-hit ratio by content type. Here are the cache-key, TTL, Vary and origin-shield mistakes that quietly inflate origin load and latency, and why AI crawlers make them more expensive in 2026.

## [How Travel Booking Platforms Survive Flash Sales Without Downtime](https://www.eknix.com/blog/travel-flash-sales/)

A flash sale is a self-inflicted traffic spike that behaves like an attack: search storms, bot pile-ons, and bottlenecks autoscaling can't reach. Here is the architecture that keeps booking platforms selling, and the runbook to have ready before the fare drops.

## [Account Takeover Attacks Are Rising: Your 2026 Defence Checklist](https://www.eknix.com/blog/account-takeover-2026/)

Credential stuffing now rides residential broadband, phishing kits proxy your MFA, and infostealers arrive with a valid session cookie. Here is the layered defence checklist that still holds in 2026, and a 30-day plan to get there.

## [Core Web Vitals for Fintech: Compliance Isn't the Only Reason to Care](https://www.eknix.com/blog/core-web-vitals-fintech/)

Fintech teams file Core Web Vitals under SEO and compliance. The more expensive story is what slow, unstable pages do to trust, conversion, and the high-value customers you never see leave.

## [Web Application Firewall: Why Default Rules Aren't Enough for Fintech](https://www.eknix.com/blog/waf-fintech/)

A WAF on default rules is better than no WAF, and Akamai's Adaptive Security Engine takes it further. But for fintech platforms handling payment flows, regulated data, targeted attacks, and DORA's four-hour reporting clock, neither closes the business-logic gap. Here's what tuning actually involves in 2026.

## [DDoS Protection for Travel Platforms: Lessons from Peak Booking Season](https://www.eknix.com/blog/ddos-travel-platforms/)

Travel platforms face a DDoS problem that standard protection wasn't built for: traffic spikes that look like attacks but aren't, and attacks timed to look like traffic spikes. Here's what we've learned from operating through peak booking season.

## [API Security in Ecommerce: What CTOs Get Wrong](https://www.eknix.com/blog/api-security-ecommerce/)

Most ecommerce security programmes have stronger frontend defences than API defences, and attackers know it. This post covers the API security gaps we keep finding in production, and what's changing now that AI agents are doing the shopping.

## [How Page Latency Kills Ecommerce Revenue in 2026 (And How to Fix It)](https://www.eknix.com/blog/latency-ecommerce-revenue/)

The relationship between page load time and ecommerce revenue is well-documented and consistent. This post covers the latest 2026 data, the real causes of latency, and what a performance-optimised stack actually looks like.

## [How Bot Attacks Drain Fintech Revenue — And How to Stop Them](https://www.eknix.com/blog/bot-attacks-fintech/)

Bot attacks on fintech platforms go far beyond downtime — they drain revenue through credential stuffing, card testing, and account takeover. Here's what the damage actually looks like, and how layered bot management stops it.

## [Why most microsegmentation projects stall — and how to avoid it](https://www.eknix.com/blog/microsegmentation-stalls/)

Three failure modes that stall microsegmentation projects in regulated environments — and the patterns that get teams from observation mode to enforced policies in weeks, not months.

## [Bot management isn't a checkbox — it's a tuning practice](https://www.eknix.com/blog/bot-management-tuning/)

Why bot management requires continuous tuning, not a one-time deployment — and how to distinguish legitimate bots from malicious ones without hurting your SEO or blocking real users.

## [The CDN math that actually matters for e-commerce](https://www.eknix.com/blog/cdn-math-ecommerce/)

The CDN metrics that actually move the needle for e-commerce — and the numbers most teams get wrong when evaluating edge performance and cache hit ratios.

## [Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Eknix](https://www.eknix.com/blog/christmas-2025/)

Wishing our clients and partners a restful Christmas and a new year with 100% uptime where it counts.

## [How CDN node mapping actually works](https://www.eknix.com/blog/cdn-node-mapping/)

How a domain name gets mapped to one of thousands of CDN nodes worldwide — and why Anycast and GeoDNS solve the problem in fundamentally different ways.

## [Why CDN Vendors Hide Their Prices (And What to Do About It)](https://www.eknix.com/blog/contact-sales-button/)

The 'Contact Sales' button isn't a barrier — it's a reflection of how enterprise CDN pricing actually works. Here's what's behind it, and how to navigate it.

## [CDN to Origin Certificates: Your Own CA with OpenSSL](https://www.eknix.com/blog/cdn-to-origin-certificates/)

How to manage TLS certificates on your origin server when it sits behind a CDN — and why operating your own CA is often the cleanest solution at scale.

## [Is Google reCAPTCHA a DDoS Defence? The Cost Math Says No](https://www.eknix.com/blog/recaptcha-ddos-cost/)

Using Google reCAPTCHA to absorb DDoS traffic sounds pragmatic until you run the numbers. At 25,000 requests per second, you're paying $90,000 per hour to Google.

## [Do You Know How Your Customers Experience Your Site? Or Just Where They Go?](https://www.eknix.com/blog/akamai-mpulse-real-user-monitoring/)

Google Analytics tells you where users go. Akamai mPulse tells you what they actually experienced when they got there — and why that distinction matters for revenue.

## [Happy New Year and Merry Christmas from Eknix](https://www.eknix.com/blog/christmas-2024/)

Thank you for being with us in 2024. Wishing you a joyful Christmas and a 2025 full of good health, new opportunities, and things worth building.

## [Is Your Website Ready for the Holiday Rush?](https://www.eknix.com/blog/holiday-peak-readiness/)

11.11, Black Friday, Christmas, New Year — four predictable traffic peaks that expose the same two gaps every year: security posture and page load performance.