Description
Akamai Technologies is an American content delivery network (CDN), a cybersecurity, and cloud service company, providing web and Internet security services. Akamai's Intelligent Edge Platform is one of the world's largest distributed computing platforms. The company operates a network of servers around the world and rents out capacity on these servers to customers who want their websites to work faster by distributing content from locations near the user. When a user navigates to the URL of an Akamai customer, their browser is directed by Akamai's domain name system to a proximal edge server that can serve the requested content. Akamai's mapping system assigns each user to a proximal edge server using sophisticated algorithms such as stable matching and consistent hashing, enabling more reliable and faster web downloads. Further, Akamai implements DDoS mitigation and other security services in its edge server platform.
History
Akamai Technologies entered the 1998 MIT $50K competition with a business proposition based on their research on consistent hashing, and were selected as one of the finalists. By August 1998 they had developed a working prototype, and with the help of Jonathan Seelig and Randall Kaplan, they began taking steps to incorporate the company.
In late 1998 and early 1999, a group of business professionals and scientists joined the founding team. Most notably, Paul Sagan, former president of New Media for Time Inc. and George Conrades, former chairman and chief executive officer of BBN Corp. and senior vice president of US operations for IBM. Conrades became the chief executive officer of Akamai in April 1999. The company launched its commercial service in April 1999 and was listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market from October 29, 1999.
On July 1, 2001, Akamai was added to the Russell 3000 Index and Russell 2000 Index.
On September 11, 2001, co-founder Daniel M. Lewin died in the September 11 attacks at the age of 31 when he was stabbed during his flight aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center.
In 2005, Paul Sagan was named chief executive officer of Akamai, taking over from Conrades. Sagan worked to differentiate Akamai from its competitors by expanding the company's breadth of services. Under his leadership, the company grew to $1.37 billion in revenues.
In July 2007, Akamai was added to the S&P 500 Index.
In 2013, co-founder Tom Leighton was elected to the position of chief executive officer, replacing Sagan.
On February 9, 2021, Akamai announced it would be reorganizing into two internal groups: Security Technology and Edge Technology. The company also re-established the role of chief technology officer and that Robert Blumofe would be serving in that role. Long-time chief security officer (CSO) Andy Ellis also announced he would be leaving in March 2021.
Akamai's headquarters are in Kendall Square. Akamai started out in Technology Square and later expanded to multiple buildings in Cambridge Center. They consolidated their offices in a purpose-built building at 145 Broadway in December 2019.
