| Title | : | LIVING ON THE EDGE FOR A QUARTER CENTURY: A PERSONAL RETROSPECTIVE |
| Speaker | : | RAMESH K. SITARAMAN (University of Massachusetts Amherst and Akamai Technologies) |
| Details | : | Thu, 24 Apr, 2025 3:00 PM @ SSB 334 |
| Abstract: | : | As Akamai and the creation of the “edge” turn 25, we look back at the key role that the edge has played in the evolution of internet services. The story of the edge started in the late 1990s when servers were deployed worldwide to provide content delivery services for web pages and videos. The quest to move dynamic content and application logic closer to users created the first edge computing service a few years later. The growth of the edge that now spans thousands of locations has dramatically increased the scope and importance of services that critically rely on it. This has created new challenges in operating the edge at scale and securing it from sophisticated attacks. Further, the growth of AI has precipitated novel services that host and serve ML models from the edge. Finally, as the carbon footprint of the edge grows rapidly, reimagining a sustainable “zero-carbon” edge powered by renewable energy poses a key direction for future research.
Bio: Ramesh K. Sitaraman is a Distinguished University Professor and Associate Dean in the College of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His research focuses on multiple facets of Internet-scale distributed systems, including algorithms, architectures, performance, and sustainability. He is best known for pioneering content delivery and edge computing services that currently deliver much of the world’s web content, streaming videos, and online applications. As a principal architect at Akamai, he helped create the world’s first major content delivery network (CDN) and later the first edge computing service. He retains a part-time role as Akamai’s Chief Consulting Scientist. Prof. Sitaraman is a Fellow of the ACM, IEEE, and AAAS. He is a recipient of the inaugural ACM SIGCOMM Networking Systems Award for his work on the Akamai CDN, the ACM IMC Test-of-Time award for his work on video quality, an Excellence in DASH award for his contribution to the MPEG-DASH reference video player standard, and the IEEE William R. Bennett Prize for his work on adaptive bitrate (ABR) algorithms for video streaming that are widely used in practice. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award (DTA), the university’s highest recognition of teaching. He received a B. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras where he was named Distinguished Alumnus. He received a Ph.D. in computer science from Princeton University. |
