Content delivery networks eye Web services

Doug Cavit, CIO at security software maker McAfee.com, has long been a proponent of content delivery networks. The company was a pioneering user of Akamai Technologies' edge delivery services, and Cavit says that by running about 60% of his traffic from the edge, he's avoided the need to add hardware while keeping performance levels high.

Now he's ready to take the next step.

McAfee is working with Akamai as it readies a new service aimed at supporting Microsoft .Net, one of several Web services initiatives that are under way at CDN companies. During the past year or so, CDNs have evolved from simply supporting static content to handling streaming media and dynamic content assembly. The next move for these companies is boosting the performance of Web-enabled applications.

"All the pieces are starting to come together," Cavit says. "They're coming together to allow you to be able to use the CDN as an execution platform . . . you won't just be creating Web pages, you'll actually be creating services on the edge."

The move is happening slowly as companies start to understand how so-called Web services can benefit their businesses. Web services are XML-based application components that can be cobbled together on the fly using standards such as Simple Object Access Protocol for their transport. The idea is that disparate applications can communicate with each other over the Internet, enabling business-to-business connectivity without proprietary middleware.

Because Web services will travel over HTTP and TCP/IP, operators of CDNs say their networks will fit perfectly into the puzzle. CDNs helped improve the performance of the Internet by pushing content closer to end users, and analysts say they could do the same for Web services, which will face similar bottlenecks.

"CDNs, having pieces of the application that run near to the users, will play an important role in Web services," says Peter Christy, co-founder of NetsEdge Research Group. "You will have to do exactly what a CDN did for the dot-com world, which is to move things nearer to the points of use, rather than counting on them getting across the Internet on their own."

But Christy says that in early stages of Web services deployment, the need for CDNs might not be great because of the relatively small number of companies using Web services. As Web services become more prevalent and companies seek ways to integrate with multiple systems, CDNs might turn out to be the key to ensuring the smooth flow of these Web-enabled applications.

"But that's the million-dollar question because we don't know where the Web services market is going to go. We don't know what those killer applications are going to be," says Greg Howard, an analyst at the HTRC Group.

The market is developing - albeit slowly, according to a recent study by IDC, which concluded that companies see benefits in the Web services architecture, but most are proceeding with caution. The survey of more than 750 businesses found that four out of five respondents plan to undertake Web services projects during the next three years, but only one in four already have completed an internal Web services deployment.

Nevertheless, CDN providers are wasting no time in laying out their plans to support Web services. Akamai has announced partnerships with IBM and Microsoft to support application processing within its global network of nearly 13,000 edge servers. Mirror Image also detailed its Web services push earlier this year, announcing that it would enhance its network of content access points to support .Net and Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition.

Other providers, such as Cable & Wireless, Conxion and Speedera Networks, are keeping a close eye on the market's development. They say they're ready to support Web services when the time comes - the question is when.

"We decided that [Web services] may be a bit further out than we thought," says Scott Bishop, director of product marketing at Mirror Image.

Mirror Image had planned to roll out Web services support by year-end, but now instead plans to unveil that capability next year. In the meantime, the company is focusing on supporting Web-enabled transactions.

"There are a ton of [electronic data interchange] transactions out there today that are on private networks that are transitioning over to an Internet-based EDI model. That's a perfect play for us in terms of creating a Web service infrastructure that can deliver an Internet-based EDI solution to these large enterprises," Bishop says.

Akamai also has pushed back plans to release Web services capabilities, which had been slated for year-end. Thorsten Ganz, director of marketing at Akamai, says beta testing for Java processing at the edge will begin in the first quarter of next year, with general availability slated for the second quarter. Services based on .Net will be introduced by the end of next year, but timing depends on Microsoft's schedule for the .Net server, which already has been delayed, he says.

McAfee's Cavit expects to use Akamai's .Net capabilities to provide a subscription-based antivirus service on the Web. Now customers can get software downloads quickly because they are accessed from Akamai's edge servers. With .Net, however, McAfee can move authentication processing to the edge, reducing costs by eliminating the need to add hardware, Cavit says.

Cavit says he envisions eventually hooking his system into a third-party application that takes payment transactions, all processed at the edge.

Using Web services "really is a big paradigm shift," Cavit says. "It opens up a whole new interesting set of ways of going about building the Web and it opens the door on the concept of utility computing and things like that . . . that operate via CDNs or overlay networks."

But before CDNs can take their place in the Web services, businesses must adopt this new technology. One of the big hurdles to adoption is the question of security. CDNs tout the security they already have in place for content delivery. Web services vendors also are taking a hard look at how to beef up security for these untethered applications. IBM, Microsoft and VeriSign developed Web Services Security, a specification for securing the exchange of Web services messages. The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards is reviewing that specification as a proposed standard.

When those types of issues become hardened more companies will consider Web services and might look to the overlay networks provided by CDNs to ensure that the applications achieve the performance they need.

Sean Armstrong, senior Internet manager at software maker Network Intelligence, says he uses Web services internally, but would consider a CDN for delivery once issues such as standards, security and workflow become more mature.

"The idea of utilizing a globally distributed high-speed infrastructure as the transport layer for Web services is appealing on many levels," he says. "Along with vast improvements in delivery throughput to points around the globe, the simple fact that there is another item of concern - reliable and cost-effective data transfer - I can get off my plate makes it worth the time to implement this service."

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