[openssl-announce] Akamai sponsors TLS 1.3

[Steve Marquess]

Many companies use OpenSSL, relatively few of them support it. I'm
pleased to announce that Akamai (https://www.akamai.com/) has expanded
its already substantial presence in the latter category.

Akamai has contractually committed to funding implementation of TLS 1.3
in OpenSSL. That is something we were going to do anyway, an initiative
that has been delayed by the major overhaul leading up to the 1.1
release. But, by contracting us to perform that implementation Akamai
accomplishes two things:

1) A known schedule (with a key deadline of 2017-04-05). Left to our own
devices and the usual resource contentions we would have taken longer;
by funding us for a specific deliverable and schedule Akamai ensures a
result that meets their own needs.

2) Significant financial support for OpenSSL, funding we would not
otherwise have received which will be used for long term support of
OpenSSL. While not technically a donation (because payment is contingent
on specific deliverables) the end effect is the same, as we would have
eventually done a comparable TLS 1.3 implementation anyway.

Thank you Akamai for your well-considered initiative to both address
your own business requirements and support OpenSSL and the OpenSSL user
community at the same time; a win-win situation all around.

-Steve M.

-- 
Steve Marquess
OpenSSL Software Foundation
20-22 Wenlock Road
London N1 7GU
United Kingdom
+44 1785508015
+1 301 874 2571 direct
marquess at opensslfoundation.org
stevem at openssl.org