Show to feature products for boosting content speed

NEW YORK - More than 50 vendors and people are expected this week to attend the Content Delivery Networks Event 2001, which will feature an array of hardware and software aimed at speeding up and easing the management of Web and e-commerce sites.

The show, which kicks off Tuesday, will play host to announcements from Chutney Technologies, SpiderCache, Exodus Communications and Volera, and NaviSite.

According to a report to be delivered at the show by The HTRC Group, growth in the number of Web sites as well as e-commerce is leading companies to differentiate themselves by offering multiple types of content, including streaming media and dynamic content delivery. Companies also have to meet the demands users put on them to deliver that content as quickly as possible.

Chutney will introduce PreLoader 2.0 software, which runs on Linux, Solaris and Windows, and promises to speed up dynamic content delivery. PreLoader caches elements of content and hands it over to the application server when requests come in from surfers.

It speeds Web sites by caching the content elements of dynamically constructed pages that would otherwise have to be recreated by the application server.

PreLoader supports Java-based and application service provider-based page-generation schemes, and the company claims it is interoperable with leading application servers, including BEA Systems' WebLogic, IBM's WebSphere and BroadVision's One-to-One Commerce.

Exodus and Volera will announce a partnership that will give Exodus customers access to hosted content distribution and acceleration services. The alliance is part of an enhanced content distribution network Exodus is rolling out.

Exodus says Volera provides another choice for customers looking to speed up Web sites at the server level.

Lydia Leong, an analyst with research firm Gartner Dataquest, says as the content distribution market grows, it will be a threat to Web hosting companies because it means users will access content at some point outside data centers.

NaviSite is planning to announce streaming services partnerships with Madge.web, SMC Networks and Speedera Networks. By using those partner networks, NaviSite can offer more global reach to users.

For its part, SpiderCache plans to offer a new version of its SpiderCache software for Unix and Windows NT.

The Version 1.5 software includes features designed to let users clear the cache as well as make installation and configuration of the cache simpler via a wizard.

In addition, a new feature can reduce the size of images being cached for delivery from 5% to 90%.

Network World Senior Writer Jennifer Mears contributed to this article.