Can I keep Akamai and still serve China quickly?

Yes. 21YunBox Optimizer is a fully managed overlay that runs on top of your existing Akamai configuration, accelerating traffic into mainland China with no rebuild or new pipeline.

What happens when Akamai ends its China CDN?

Without an overlay, requests will fall back to non‑China POPs, adding 150–300 ms. The Optimizer keeps performance high by routing through 40+ mainland hubs and handling compliance.

Do I need to file China paperwork myself?

No. The Optimizer bundle includes full China compliance management—ICP licence coordination, real‑name auth, log retention, and more.

How long does a typical migration take?

Most sites cut over in under two hours once CNAME records propagate. ICP filing is handled in parallel so there’s no downtime.

Akamai China: Performance, Limitations & 2025 Exit Plan

Is Akamai leaving China? Understand Akamai CDN performance, the 2026 shutdown timeline, and how a fully managed overlay keeps your site fast & compliant.

Need an Akamai China Boost? Get a Free Site Audit.

Our fully managed overlay adds China speed and compliance to your existing Akamai setup—no rebuilds, no extra DevOps.

Get In Touch

Let us handle China so you can focus on growth.

Akamai China: Key Facts in 2025

2025 Update: Akamai has confirmed it will end its mainland‑China CDN service on 30 June 2026. Existing customers must migrate to local partners or add an overlay before that date.¹

Quick‑Glance Timeline

Milestone	Date	What It Means
Customer notice sent	08 Jan 2025	Akamai formally announces exit.
New mainland provisioning ends	30 Sep 2025	No new sites can be onboarded to Akamai China POPs.
Mainland POPs de‑commissioned	30 Jun 2026	All traffic falls back to HK/SG or further.

Does Akamai Work in China Today?

Akamai’s global edge network stops at China’s digital border. Inside China it relies on third‑party partners rather than its own POPs, which means no self‑service portal and inconsistent performance.

Average TTFB reported by customers: 550 ms – 1.2 s.
Static assets often routed through Hong Kong, Singapore or Tokyo.
Dynamic HTML can be throttled or reset by the Great Firewall (GFW), causing 5 s+ white‑screens or outright timeouts.

Why Is Akamai Leaving China?

In January 2025 Akamai notified customers that it will discontinue its China CDN, citing a return to its core focus on global security and edge compute and the high regulatory burden of maintaining in‑country infrastructure.²

What Happens After 30 June 2026?

Latency jump: Traffic will fall back to Hong Kong nodes, adding 150–300 ms (often more during congestion).
Operational burden: You’ll need new contracts and China regulatory paperwork if you move to local CDNs—unless you add an overlay that handles compliance for you.

Fully Managed Overlay — 21YunBox China Website Performance Optimizer

21YunBox Optimizer is a turnkey layer that snaps onto your current Akamai stack:

No rebuild, no new pipeline – we deploy optimization fixes directly on Akamai nodes.
Instant mainland POP coverage – traffic is automatically routed through 40+ in‑China acceleration hubs.
Hands‑off China compliance – we take care of ICP, real‑name auth, logging, and all required filings.
Self‑service controls optional – keep your Akamai workflows; use our dashboard only if you want deeper China‑specific rules.

21YunBox Optimizer overlaying Akamai CDN into China

How the Optimizer Fits Into Your Current Akamai Setup

CNAME or DNS alias – point cn.yoursite.com to our overlay; global traffic continues hitting Akamai as usual.
Edge optimization rules – we add compression, image/web‑font re‑formats, and protocol tweaks directly on Akamai nodes.
Acceleration into China – optimized objects ride our private backbone into mainland POPs for sub‑100 ms TTFB.
Compliance handled – you stay on your existing origin; we shoulder the China‑side regulations.

Performance Benchmarks

Scenario	First‑Byte Time (TTFB)	Full Page Load
Akamai global POP → Beijing user	550 ms – 1 s	4–7 s
Akamai global POP → Shanghai user (peak)	800 ms – 1.3 s	6–10 s
21YunBox Optimizer → any tier‑1 Chinese city	< 100 ms	1.2–1.8 s

Data from 50+ production sites, Q1 2025 synthetic RUM.

China Compliance Checklist (2025‑2026)

Good news: the Optimizer bundle covers each item below out of the box.

ICP Filing (MIIT) – website licence unique to your domain.
Real‑Name Authentication – verified Chinese phone & legal entity.
PSB Police Filing – URL record with local Public Security Bureau.
Log Retention & Cross‑Border Transfer Guardrails – 6‑month storage inside China, alarms on PII exports.

Migration Checklist: 5 Steps Before the 2026 Sunset

Audit your current Akamai property rules and China traffic share.
Decide whether to re‑platform, move to a domestic CDN, or overlay.
Engage 21YunBox for a free latency & compliance gap report.
Deploy the Optimizer via CNAME (average cut‑over < 2 hours).
Validate performance with our built‑in synthetic & RUM dashboards.

Common Misconceptions

“I’ll just serve China from Hong Kong—close enough.” Hong Kong routes still cross the GFW; expect packet loss, throttling, and regulatory gaps.

“We can wait until 2026 to worry about this.” China ICP filings alone can take 4–6 weeks. Add migration & testing and you risk an outage.

“Local CDNs give me everything I need.” They deliver speed, but you still shoulder compliance, Chinese‑language contracts, and 24/7 bilingual support. The overlay offloads that.

Alternatives to Akamai China POPs

Option	Pros	Cons
Move to a domestic CDN (Alibaba Cloud, ChinaCache, Wangsu)	Native POP density, government ties	Rebuild rules, dual dashboards, Chinese contracts, DevOps overhead
Hybrid: Keep Akamai + deploy 21YunBox Optimizer (recommended)	2‑hour cut‑over, keep existing pipelines, compliance handled	Small additional CNAME hop
Full migration to another global CDN w/ China partner (Cloudflare, Edgio)	Familiar UI	Same mainland partner dependence; migration effort similar to domestic move