mod_spdy is now an Apache project

By Matthew Steele, PageSpeed Insights Team

Just over two years ago, we launched mod_spdy, a plugin for the popular Apache Web Server that adds support for the SPDY protocol. At the time, our goal was both to speed up the web and help fuel the growth and adoption of SPDY by making it easy for Apache 2.2 users to install and enable SPDY on their sites. Today, SPDY is now widely adopted, officially supported by several web servers and many popular sites, and the IETF is using it as the basis for the upcoming HTTP/2.0 protocol. The time seems right for mod_spdy to cease being a third-party add-on, and to instead become a core part of Apache httpd.

We’re pleased to announce that Google has formally donated mod_spdy’s code to the Apache Software Foundation, and it is now a part of the Apache httpd codebase.

“The intent is to work on making it fully part of [Apache] 2.4 and, of course, a core part of 2.6/3.0” - Jim Jagielski, co-founder of the ASF.

Being a part of Apache core will make SPDY support even more widely available for Apache httpd users, and pave the way for HTTP/2.0. It will also further improve that support over the original version of mod_spdy by better integrating SPDY and HTTP/2.0’s multiplexing features with the core part of the server.

We’re grateful for all the adoption and feedback we’ve gotten from mod_spdy users over the past two years, and we’re very excited to see the Apache Software Foundation take it from here!

Matthew Steele is a Software Engineer on the Google PageSpeed Insights Team in Cambridge, MA. He and his team focus on developing tools to help site owners make their sites faster and more usable.

Posted by Louis Gray, Googler