How AccuWeather Delivers Weather Data to 1 Billion Users with Zuplo on Akamai
AccuWeather, the world's most trafficked weather API, migrated from Google Apigee to Zuplo on Akamai Cloud—gaining a modern developer portal, programmable caching, and dramatic cost savings.
The new AccuWeather Developer Portal at developer.accuweather.com
A Global Leader Since 1962
AccuWeather has been a global leader in weather forecasting since 1962 and is the most recognized source of weather forecasts and warnings in the world. Famed for superior accuracy and hyper-local forecasts, AccuWeather helps individuals and businesses understand the impact of weather and make the best decisions.
Like the most innovative businesses, AccuWeather offers a self-serve API program where developers can sign up with a credit card and get instant access to their API. This serves as both a funnel for larger enterprise contracts and generates direct revenue from the long-tail of apps, websites, and use cases that need weather information.
Breaking Free from Legacy Gateway Limitations
AccuWeather had partnered with Google Apigee to deliver API monetization and governance but faced several critical problems:
Lack of Flexibility
Apigee's monetization model was constrained, making it hard to experiment with different pricing structures and quotas.
Poor Conversion
The developer portal provided by Apigee was dated, making updates hard and offering poor conversion of developers to their paid tier.
Complexity
Apigee's product has become dated over the years and doesn't fit into modern developer workflows. AccuWeather struggled to add new APIs and services due to the complexity.
Cost at Scale
AccuWeather wanted "one gateway to rule them all" but Apigee's high pricing meant they could only deploy the Apigee gateway in front of a minority of their web traffic, leaving AccuWeather to handle API governance themselves for the majority of their traffic.
Zuplo on Akamai Cloud
Zuplo was created to be the antidote to legacy API gateways. It was designed to fit into how engineering teams work today:
Native GitOps Approach
Programmable extensibility means AccuWeather can innovate and try new business models easily.
Modern Developer Portal
Designed on best practices from Stripe to help more developers choose AccuWeather and increase conversion.
Engineering Productivity
The team can learn and leverage Zuplo to achieve their goals, shipping new services and tiers faster than ever.
Better Unit Economics
Designed for better economics at scale, giving AccuWeather a path to their API governance nirvana: one gateway to rule them all.
Modern Developer Portal
Built on Zuplo's developer portal framework (Zudoku), the new developer.accuweather.com provides:
- Self-serve API key registration
- Interactive API documentation
- Built-in authentication and payments
- Code samples and quick-start guides
Edge-Native API Gateway
Deployed across Akamai's global network with CDN and Global Traffic Manager:
- Integrated with Akamai CDN + GTM
- Programmable caching at the edge
- Rate limiting and access control
- Unified analytics and monitoring
Transformational Outcomes
The migration to Zuplo on Akamai delivered immediate and measurable benefits.
Innovation Unlocked
AccuWeather can now experiment with new business models and pricing structures easily—solving the flexibility problem that constrained them with Apigee.
Higher Conversion
The modern developer portal is driving more developers from free to paid tiers, increasing revenue from their self-serve API program.
Engineering Productivity
The team can learn and leverage Zuplo to ship new services and tiers faster than ever, eliminating the complexity that slowed them down before.
Complete API Governance
Better unit economics mean AccuWeather now has a path to their API governance nirvana: one gateway to rule them all.
From the Leadership
"The combined strengths of Zuplo and Akamai enable us to deliver weather data with unmatched speed and reliability."Chris PattiChief Data and Science Officer, AccuWeather
"With the move to Zuplo, AccuWeather now unlocks a quicker, seamless developer experience—allowing us to roll out new features and expanded API offerings faster than ever before so the best weather-impacted decisions can be made."Chris PattiChief Data and Science Officer, AccuWeather
"This partnership showcases how Akamai's edge network, API security, and Zuplo's gateway can jointly drive performance, security, and business growth."Eric GrahamVP Product Management, Akamai
"Our API gateway was built for distributed, high-volume workloads, and Akamai's global edge network makes this vision possible."Josh TwistCo-Founder and CEO, Zuplo
Explore the AccuWeather APIs
The new developer portal provides access to AccuWeather's comprehensive suite of weather APIs.
MinuteCast API
Hyperlocal precipitation forecasts minute-by-minute
Forecast API
70+ weather parameters including RealFeel
Current Conditions
Real-time weather data worldwide
Location Lookup
Search 3.5M+ locations globally
Alerts & Alarms
Severe weather notifications
Lifestyle Indices
UV, pollen, and activity forecasts
Ready to Transform Your API Strategy?
See how Zuplo on Akamai can deliver the same results for your organization.