Start-up aims to guarantee digital content delivery

LOS ALTOS, CALIF. - Newcomer Radiance Technologies this spring will enter the increasingly crowded content delivery market with software for enabling companies to better distribute large files without overhauling their networks.

The company is trying to do for digital file distribution what FedEx did for package delivery by helping companies guarantee delivery of important information across their networks. Radiance officials say their software could prevent companies from bogging down their e-mail networks with multimegabyte CAD or multimedia files or from resorting to putting such files onto disks or tapes that need to be transferred manually.

Radiance officials say their offerings will stand apart from other technologies for streamlining content delivery, particularly those in the form of services or "prepositioned" appliances that cache data at the network's edge where authorized parties can access it. Vendors such as Akamai, CacheFlow and Cisco fall into those camps. Radiance's software handles delivery of content all the way to the destination computer, whether it's a server, laptop or other device. That's the only way to ensure the content gets to its intended destination on time, Radiance officials say. The software does not rely on peer-to-peer technology, as does that of other start-ups in the content delivery field.

"We're betting on digital logistics and not requiring customers to upgrade their networks," says John McCrea, a marketing official for Radiance, which was launched in July 2000 by veterans of Applied Materials, Silicon Graphics and other high-tech companies. Radiance, which employees 30 people, received initial funding from Sutter Hill Ventures and private investors. The company hopes to announce a new round of funding shortly.

Radiance's software, currently in pilot tests, will run on servers as well as end devices, such as laptops. While company officials declined to get into much more product detail, they did say the software will work with existing net management, content management, compression and other products via XML interfaces and other hooks. They declined to discuss pricing.

IT shops would use the software to set policies on content delivery, and end users would be presented with a screen that would enable them to define delivery preferences. Companies will be able to configure the software to deliver content after taking into account file sizes, bandwidth sizes and the number of intended recipients. The software will also be able to kill certain content on an "expiration date" and to "embargo" other content until the company is ready to release it, McCrea says.

Radiance has run simulations showing its technology will scale to support tens of thousands of users, says Amotz Maimon, who oversees product development and engineering.

McCrea says the company is pursuing customers in many industries, but feels those in manufacturing, retailing and high-tech are among its best targets.

There is a need for Radiance's technology, but whether customers with tight IT budgets will spring for it remains to be seen, says Michael Hoch, an analyst with market research firm Aberdeen Group. One thing the company may have going for it, he says, is that its software may appeal both to IT departments as well as line-of-business operations, such as marketing.

"This software does present a more efficient way of doing things," he says. "It offers a way to change business processes to gain economic efficiencies."