THE INTERNET

When a generation behind us takes a complete look at the development of the Internet, they will include in the history books the names of Bill Gates and Paul Allen at Microsoft, Steve Jobs and Pete Wozniak at Apple, Larry Page at Google and Danny Lewin at Akamai.  Wait.  What?  Danny who at what?

One of the guys you may not have heard of was Daniel Lewin - born in Denver then moved to Jerusalem at age 14.  He attended the Israeli Institute of Technology in Haifa.  While in school, he worked at an IBM research facility located there.  He was responsible for developing the Genesys processing system used by IBM and other companies.

Danny came back to the U.S. for doctorate work at the Massachusetts's Institute of Technology.  While there, he worked with a professor to develop a method to optimize internet traffic.  Together, they founded the firm Akamai Technologies.  Akamai provides a content delivery network (CDN) and cloud service to many users around the world.  Danny's little idea of consistent hashing allowed the CDN industry to improve game playing and movie streaming to the masses.

One reason you may never have heard of Danny Lewin is that his life was cut short at the age of 31.  He was the first victim of the 9/11 attacks on America.  Lewin, who was a captain in the Israeli army, was reportedly stabbed to death by a hijacker as he tried to thwart their effort just before his plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.   A great mind lost.

ps:  'Akamai' is the Hawaiian language word for 'genius'.
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