Tiny Newcomer Gives Inktomi a Run for Its Money

SAN FRANCISCO -- Inktomi (INKT Quote) is playing catch-up to a pipsqueak.

Foster City, Calif.-based Inktomi pioneered the deployment of traffic servers, software designed to ease congestion on the Internet by storing, or "caching," copies of frequently accessed information. But Akamai (pronounced AH-kuh-my), a white-hot Cambridge, Mass.-based start-up on the verge of going public, has developed a technology that analysts say is giving Inktomi a run for its money by providing a smarter method of accelerating Web download times.

Inktomi reported $25.3 million in revenue in the first half of its fiscal year, which ends this month, while Akamai had just $404,000 in revenue in the six months ended June 30. ...