A group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
scientists have launched a new company to market and manage what the group
calls the world’s largest fault-tolerant network for distributing Web content.
Akamai Technologies Inc. has developed
a proprietary network using patent-pending technology developed over the
last three years at MIT. The network is used to speed the delivery of
richer Web pages, allowing content providers with large audiences to serve
visitors reliably and economically using servers located near the end users.
The team of researchers was led by Frank Thomas Leighton, a professor of
applied mathematics at MIT, now the company’s chief scientist.
The company has already released its first product, called FreeFlow, which
uses the technology the group developed to shift the most complicated
aspects of Web content distribution away from the content providers to
Akamai’s network of global servers.
“Our technology is revolutionary in terms of its ability to distribute and
manage content over a large network without disrupting the content
provider’s direct relationship with the end user,” Leighton said.
“Akamai’s FreeFlow content distribution service is designed to be
fault-tolerant and highly-responsive to our clients’ needs. It promises to
be a boon for a wide variety of Internet entertainment and information
providers as well as many e-commerce and online businesses.”
Akamai said its global network of hundreds of servers allows Web sites to
handle quick peaks in demand that can sometimes overwhelm servers, making
it impossible for them to efficiently handle traffic.
FreeFlow is compatible with any Web server or site design, including
e-commerce and database applications.
Akamai has received more than $8 million in initial funding from two
Massachusetts-based venture capital firms. Several private investors have
also contributed money for the first round of financing.
Akamai’s board of directors include George Conrades, now a venture
capitalist at Polaris Venture Partners. Conrades was previously president
of GTE Internetworking.
