Packeteer eyes acceleration performance

If you're looking for companies that provide application acceleration capabilities, you've certainly got a lot to choose from. But what about if you want a good, in-depth look at how your acceleration product is working?

Packeteer last week updated its PacketWise software, which powers its AppCelera application devices. PacketWise/XA 3.0 gives users detailed reports about how their applications are performing - and how the AppCelera devices are performing.

The software uses the reporting capabilities Packeteer is known for in its traffic-shaping devices to make sense of all the detailed information that AppCelera collects. The device sits in front of or alongside Web servers and analyzes where traffic is coming from. It looks at a user's connection speed and what browser is being used to access content. AppCelera then uses compression and image conversion technologies to deliver content in the best way for the particular user. It also uses caching technology and offers Secure Sockets Layer acceleration.

Because of the way it works, AppCelera is already collecting a wide range of information, points out Todd Krautkremer, vice president of marketing at AppCelera. Customers can create different reports, depending on what type of information they want to see - server response time vs. end user response time, for example, or the performance of specific content on a specific page.

"We're taking some of those important metrics that customers want and embedding that in the product so that we can deliver that as a natural byproduct of the AppCelera platform," Krautkremer says.

PacketWise/XA 3.0 for AppCelera is in beta testing and will be generally available in early August.

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Denise Dubie is a Staff Writer covering network management at Network World. She also works as a freelance writer in the Boston area. You can reach her at ddubie@nww.com.