Manager Business Applications

Jim Cramer praised Akamai Technologies and Cloudflare during a September episode of Mad Money, calling Akamai "terrific" and Cloudflare one of his favourites. Akamai's second-quarter revenue rose 5% year over year to $1.1 billion, with Cloud Infrastructure Services revenue jumping 39% to $99 million. The company signed more than $2.8 billion of multiyear cloud contracts in the first half of 2026, including one worth over $600 million. However, non-GAAP operating income fell 12% to $271 million as capital expenditures increased. Cloudflare's second-quarter revenue increased 36% to $696.1 million. The company expects full-year 2026 revenue of $2.864 billion to $2.870 billion but remains unprofitable on a GAAP basis. At the end of Q2, 62 hedge funds held Akamai, down from 74, while Cloudflare had 87 holders, up from 84.

VST ECS strengthens enterprise portfolio, expands cybersecurity offerings through partnership with Akamai. VST ECS Phils., Inc., the country's leading ICT distributor, is expanding its enterprise technology portfolio through a new partnership with Akamai Technologies, the cloud and security company that powers and protects businesses online. The appointment strengthens VST ECS's portfolio with advanced cybersecurity and cloud capabilities, giving its channel partners and customers broader access to enterprise-grade digital protection solutions. As organizations across the Philippines become increasingly dependent on cloud environments, digital platforms, APIs, and connected applications, cybersecurity has become a critical business priority. Through this partnership, VST ECS now offers Akamai's security solutions - including application and API security, DDoS protection, Zero Trust security, microsegmentation, bot protection, DNS security, and cloud security - as part of its expanded enterprise solutions portfolio. This addition allows VST ECS to support a wider range of industries: helping banks and financial institutions protect digital banking platforms and APIs, enabling retail and e-commerce businesses to safeguard online transactions and manage malicious bot activity, and strengthening the resilience of citizen-facing digital services for government and public-sector organizations. For enterprises operating hybrid and multicloud environments - including BPOs, telecommunications companies, and healthcare organizations - VST ECS can now also offer Zero Trust and microsegmentation capabilities that help strengthen access controls and limit the movement of threats across critical systems. "Cybersecurity has become a fundamental business priority as organizations become increasingly dependent on digital platforms, cloud environments, and connected applications," said Jimmy Go, President and CEO of VST ECS Phils., Inc. "Our partnership with Akamai gives our customers and partners access to technologies that can help protect critical digital assets, strengthen cyber resilience, and support the secure growth of their businesses." Through this appointment, Akamai's portfolio of cybersecurity solutions becomes more accessible to organizations across the country, leveraging VST ECS's expansive and highly diversified channel ecosystem. "Strengthening our partnership with VST ECS in the Philippines as we continue to expand Akamai's reach and support for customers and partners is important," said Gordon Woo, Regional Sales Director, Akamai Technologies. "With organizations facing an increasingly complex security landscape, our channel ecosystem plays an important role in helping customers protect their applications, APIs, infrastructure, and digital experiences. Together with VST ECS, we look forward to enabling our partners with the technology, expertise and support they need to address these evolving customer requirements and create new opportunities for growth." The partnership reflects VST ECS's continued expansion of its enterprise portfolio to help organizations secure, build, and scale their digital operations, while reinforcing Akamai's commitment to supporting the resilience and performance today's connected environments require. To learn more about VST ECS's expanded cybersecurity offerings and how the Akamai partnership can support your organization's digital security needs, contact Ven Mabanglo, Product Manager - Akamai, at [email protected].

The AI paradox: budgets stand firm as autonomous agents explode enterprise attack surfaces. As of today, September 13, 2026, the global enterprise technology landscape is wrestling with a profound paradox: general IT budgets are being slashed to fund costly artificial intelligence initiatives, yet cybersecurity budgets are standing incredibly firm. Enterprise leaders find themselves in a high-stakes race, deploying advanced AI capabilities while struggling to secure the massive, unmanaged attack surface those very tools create. The rise of autonomous agents and machine identities. The rapid integration of autonomous AI agents into core workflows is fundamentally shifting the security landscape. According to recent intelligence, the proliferation of AI agents and machine identities is dramatically widening enterprise security exposure. Unlike static software, autonomous agents operate with a high degree of independent decision-making, generating a vast web of machine-to-machine interactions. These dynamic identities often bypass standard access controls, leaving security teams blind to unauthorized data access and lateral movement within the corporate network. M&A and governance shift to the runtime. Recognizing this critical vulnerability, the market is quickly consolidating to provide specialized governance. Kiteworks has expanded its data security platform through the acquisition of Bonfy.AI, targeting real-time AI and enterprise data governance. This acquisition signals a massive shift toward securing data actively, at the point of runtime execution. Meanwhile, Anthropic continues to push the envelope, expanding its enterprise AI arsenal with autonomous tools ahead of its widely expected IPO. As these powerful autonomous tools hit the mainstream, security governance must shift from static policies to dynamic, real-time enforcement. Bulletproofing budgets and Resilient defenses. Despite heavy cost pressures, security leaders are successfully protecting their resources. Research indicates that cybersecurity budgets are holding up even as rising AI infrastructure costs force severe IT spending cuts elsewhere. Organizations are also strengthening their regional postures through strategic alliances: VST ECS has expanded its enterprise cybersecurity offerings through a major partnership with Akamai, while tech leaders in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) are ramping up deployment, with Saviynt bringing in a 20-year cybersecurity veteran to lead its MEA expansion. To operationalize these defenses, forward-looking CISOs are turning to structured battle-testing. CISA's Cyber Storm exercise has provided a vital blueprint for enterprise security leaders, offering a structured framework to simulate multi-layered attacks, test machine identity controls, and validate response plans under pressure. The bottom line. * Resilient Security Budgets: Cybersecurity funding remains shielded from broader corporate IT budget cuts, recognized as a foundational enabler of safe AI deployment. * The Identity Challenge: The rise of autonomous AI agents has introduced thousands of untracked machine identities, rendering traditional perimeter defenses obsolete. * Active Governance: Platform consolidations, such as Kiteworks acquiring Bonfy.AI, indicate that governance must now happen in real-time at the point of action. Stay Connected for Daily Security Intelligence Follow Aibots Sdn Bhd to get the latest breaking cybersecurity reports and threat analysis delivered daily. Aibots Sdn Bhd | [Beyond Future]