The specifics of “consistent hashing” are complex, but it effectively meant that a sudden, unexpected surge in traffic or a downed server would no longer cause a crippling traffic jam. Danny Lewin and his MIT adviser, Thomson Leighton, built Akamai Technologies on a mathematical algorithm Lewin devised to route the web’s content dynamically. Popular websites took ages to load, if at all, and it was increasingly apparent that simply adding more servers wasn’t going to work.Ī novel solution to the “World Wide Wait” came from an unlikely place: an American-born, Israeli-raised counterterrorism soldier who also happened to a mathematical whiz. As recently as the late 1990s, the web’s core infrastructure was at risk of buckling under the weight of millions of new users. Whether it’s Facebook updates or a favourite TV show on Netflix, many of us take for granted that the Internet will deliver what we want, the second we want it. No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius who Transformed the Internet
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |