Akamai’s Vaccine Edge offers rapid access to COVID-19 vaccine appointments

Akamai has launched Vaccine Edge to facilitate the rapid distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Built on Salesforce’s Vaccine Cloud that streamlines vaccination processes, such as inventory management, staff training, payment, and reimbursement, Vaccine Edge helps manage vaccine programs at scale by enhancing signup processes on accredited vaccine registration websites.

Prepped to handle unprecedented traffic, Vaccine Edge offers faster load times, regardless of the number of users registering simultaneously. Furthermore, when workloads are too high, Vaccine Edge passes visitors to a virtual waiting room to keep their position in the queue.

Akamai’s Vaccine Edge also comes with denial-of-service (DDoS) protection to thwart botnet and web application attacks that exceed request-rate thresholds. What’s more, violators are automatically blocked to protect site service infrastructure.

"Citizens need accurate, up-to-the-minute information about vaccination eligibility and the logistics of booking an appointment," said Mani Sundaram, executive vice president, global services and support and chief information officer at Akamai Technologies.

"Vaccination registration websites must make this all happen — and handle sudden spikes in traffic. Vaccine Edge helps our customers provide a reliable user experience without creating more complexity for their IT teams."

The solution is currently available to local governments in the US and Canada, retailers, pharmacies, health care clinics, hospitals, nonprofits, and educational institutions. Optional add-ons include real user monitoring and analytics, load testing and peak event readiness, and bot mitigation.

"For most vaccine recipients, the first step in protecting themselves is scheduling an online appointment," said Meredith Flynn-Ripley, senior vice president and general manager, Salesforce Vaccine Cloud.

"Akamai's Vaccine Edge solution can help provide patients with an efficient, effective, and equitable experience integrated with Salesforce."