Gzipping content in Akamai

Question

I have a few files that are served via a content delivery network. These files are not gzipped when served from the CDN servers. I was wondering if I gzip the content on my servers' end, would Akamai first get the gzipped content and then serve gzipped content once it stores my content on their servers?

Keitel

Yes, if you gzip it, Akamai will serve it gzipped with the proper headers, provided your headers are correct (Content-Encoding: gzip, I think). – Didymous

Answer 1

Akamai can fetch content from your origin without gzip, and then serve the content as gzipped on their end. They will store the content unzipped in their cache, and then compress on the fly for those browsers that support it.

Repressive

This is called 'content-acceleration' on the config settings for the respective digital property. You can enable it from there. – Lixiviate

Are you able to explain why they don't store it pre-zipped in their cache? I would think that would allow for faster response times. – Toowoomba

Answer 2

I can't find a reason where settings Gzip compression to always is not beneficial to your end user. You can do this by setting Last Mile Acceleration to Always in Akamai

Martinic