Some users shift control from hosters to CDNs.
The security software vendor expects a major new virus will cause a considerable jump in traffic, such as the 1.3 million hits seen one day in February after the Anna Kournikova bug . Typically, the site fields about 800,000 per day. Cavit doesn't worry because McAfee is one of a number of companies that is moving more of its traffic out of data centers and onto networks provided by content-delivery firms. While the trend doesn't necessarily threaten the future of Web hosting companies such as Exodus and Digex, with some large firms moving data out of hosting facilities and into networks run by companies such as Akamai and Adero, it blurs the lines between CDNs and hosters. McAfee has about 250 servers in-house, but Cavit says he's kept that number flat, eliminating the need for collocation because of the Akamai service.