Akamai created the first broadly distributed (1000s of servers spread across 100s of locations) distributed system to speed up web sites via intelligent caching. I was hired to head up the streaming team which was developing and operating a network of Quicktime, Real Media and Windows Media servers to complement Akamai’s core web caching products. In addition to serving on-demand content, we developed a live-streaming system that was capable of streaming content at very low latency from any network attached encoder (that had sufficient) bandwidth to as many end users as the network could support (millions). This system was used by Apple to stream the Steve Jobs' keynotes from 1999 onward amongst many other ‘internet firsts’; exciting and very stressful!

I also conceived and lead the implementation of Akamai’s storage service which became the storage and delivery mechanism for iTunes when it first launchd. I’m told that Apple continued to use this system for just over a decade.

Akamai also tried to build a cloud computing product that with hindsight looked very much like the early versions of Amazon’s AWS. The idea was to complement the network of cache and video servers with a rack of machines that could be used for general computing running virtual machines. Although there was a lot of interest circa 2000 and 2001 it dried up as the dot.com bust took hold.