Vendors fortify integrated Web devices

Future integrated Web acceleration appliances could be a boon for network professionals looking to reduce the number of devices in their networks and ease installation, management and maintenance of large-scale environments.

A slew of companies during the past few weeks have announced Web acceleration products aimed at speeding content delivery to end users from the Web, e-commerce sites and corporate intranets. Many of these products will offer users integrated feature sets they previously have had to buy separate devices to get.

Among the companies making these integrated device announcements are F5 Networks, FineGround Networks, SpiderCache and Surgient Networks. F5 and Surgient plan to ship products that combine switch capabilities with traditional Web acceleration features, such as load balancing, caching, secure transaction processing - also called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) off-loading - and, in Surgient's case, streaming. The companies hope the integrated devices will give them a leg up on multidevice offerings from NetScaler, Akamba, CacheFlow, Cisco, Network Appliance and Nortel.

SpiderCache and FineGround now offer dynamic content cache products, which let customers store content that is frequently accessed for faster delivery to end users. FineGround's Condenser 3.0 appliance is designed to give IT managers a way to reduce bandwidth costs by eliminating the need for redundant page downloads from repeat end-user requests for Web site content. Condenser 3.0 also features integrated SSL off-loading capabilities.

For its part, SpiderCache says it is looking to bundle its caching and content delivery products onto a single appliance in an effort to meet users' demands for fewer devices to manage.

SpiderCache's Enterprise 2.0 cache device lets IT managers cache not only static content, but also dynamic content. Dynamic content has the most potential to cause Web server overload because it requires a Web server to continually compile images and text on the fly. SpiderCache is also planning to release a beta version of its SpiderCast content delivery software that is offered as a stand-alone package or preloaded onto an appliance. SpiderCast will compete with Akamai Technologies' content delivery network products. Both are aimed at letting Web site managers deliver and manage the content they send out over their networks.

FineGround's Condenser 3.0 has integrated SSL processing capabilities, a feature FineGround CEO Nat Kausik says customers often require for e-commerce. Competitor CacheFlow also offers an integrated caching/SSL-off-loading appliance.

Michael Hoch, an analyst with Aberdeen Group, says multifunction appliances will help customers simplify the setup of their Web acceleration infrastructures and avoid some of the pitfalls that come with integration. For example, instead of having to consider a load-balancing appliance from one vendor and turning to another for switches and yet another for caching, users can get all those functions from one and, in theory at least, manage those tasks with a single application.

At Whirlpool, Condenser 3.0 is being tested in connection with the firm's planned move to Web-based Lotus iNotes for 14,000 users.

"As we upgrade our e-mail system, we are trying to keep network costs down, and this could save us from pushing entire refreshes across our pipes as people access e-mail," says John Macko, director of network services for the company. In addition, he hopes the product improves performance. Because iNotes uses a Java compiler to construct page views, which takes time, sending only new portions of page views to end users' desktops should speed delivery, he says.

The flip side

The potential downside to integrated products, Hoch says, is that users may not have as many options to customize these multifunction products to suit their individual needs.

Hoch compares buying a multipurpose appliance to buying a boom box vs. individual stereo components. In some cases - and he says these products are so new that it's hard to tell - users may get some features in a multipurpose box that offer better performance and quality than others in that same device.

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