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CDN Fall 2001. Yesterday I managed to get to Stardust.com's content networking event in San Jose. Karen Miller, president of Stardust.com, and her staff put together a very good show, but unfortunately almost no one came. I don't know what kind of attendance they expected, but the turnout was pathetic. I counted fewer than 250 people at the opening keynote addresses. Apparently people are afraid to travel and budgets have been cut. Sad, because the content of the show is good.
Akamai was particularly obvious by their relative absence. Paul Sagan, Akamai's president, was originally scheduled for the opening address. He was replaced by someone from Digital Island. Likewise, I was looking forward to a good debate on the topic of edge-service protocols, but Mark Nottingham from Akamai was also a no-show, so there was no one to defend the Akamai-supported ESI (edge-side include) protocols. Of course, Danny Lewin, Akamai's CTO and co-founder, was one of those killed aboard a hijacked airplane on September 11. And since Akamai is headquartered in Cambridge, all the key folks would have had to fly out. On top of this, Akamai has been laying off staff all year, and mroe layoffs are expected soon. It's a tough time in the CDN industry, and the bug guys are falling the hardest.
Posted Wednesday, December 05, 2001 11:56:42 PM 
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