Friendster Reduces Network Costs; Optimizes Performance with Internap Route Control Technology
FlowControl Platform Provides Control and Visibility into Complex Networks
ATLANTA - December 21, 2005 - Internap Network Services Corporation (AMEX:IIP), a leading provider of performance-based routing solutions over the Internet, today announced that Friendster, a pioneering online social networking community, is using the Internap® Flow Control Platform™ (FCP) to gain minute-by-minute visibility into the performance of its complex network architecture, reduce bandwidth costs and network latency and ensure risk diversity in the event of carrier outages or brownouts.
Based on cost and performance policies defined by Friendster, the FCP intelligently routes traffic to over 18 million site users each day. Within the first month of deploying the Internap technology, Friendster realized a 90% reduction of network latency and a 20% improvement in network speed. Most notably, the California-based company reported 99.997% network availability for an improved end-user experience.
"Internap instantly solved our bandwidth crisis," said Dave Kochbeck, director of technology, Friendster. "Overage penalties used to cause a lot of headache due to the nature of managing unexpected traffic spikes. Now, we have control and unnecessary fees are a thing of the past." To date, Friendster has saved approximately $20K per month as a result of improved management and utilization of bandwidth.
The FCP`s measurement tool, FlowView™, also allows Friendster to proactively address impacts from software and application changes. Staff can pinpoint problems quickly and use end-to-end visibility to make informed decisions. Visual representations simplify Friendster`s reporting to executive management and allow network engineers to monitor and diagnose application performance using real-time statistics such as VCM module delivers real-time reporting on a variety of metrics including packet loss, latency and jitter.
"An unexpected, yet defining feature is the FCP`s real-time reporting capability. When there`s a problem, the tool is like a flashing red light and provides a blueprint for troubleshooting," Kochbeck added. "FlowView provides such practical functionality, that we`ve integrated it into our day-to-day operations to monitor performance 24 x7."
"Friendster`s significant performance improvements, cost savings and operational efficiency makes a compelling case for what the FCP can deliver for any multi-homed network." said David Abrahamson, executive vice president of sales, Internap. "This global community is founded on the premise of six degrees of separation, so I`m pleased that we exceeded Friendster`s expectations by enabling an improved level of control and visibility into their network. "
The FCP is available in a variety of options to accommodate traffic flows of varying sizes. List pricing for hardware, install and one year of full maintenance starts at $16,000, depending on model and capacity requirements. "We purchased appliances from a few big-name companies, but it took months to tweak them and get everything working properly," Kochbeck said. "The FCP was a plug-and-play, and I`ve never had to worry about it. It does more route changes in a day than a network engineer can make in a year which saves us time, talent and a lot of money."
A complete case study about Friendster is available at http://www.internap.com/products/FCP-overview.htm
About Friendster
Friendster is a leading online community for making new friends, communicating with existing friends, sharing information, organizing activities, finding dates, and reconnecting with lost friends. Friendster has received several industry awards, including Time Magazine`s 50 Coolest Websites of 2004 and Coolest Inventions of 2003. Friendster is a privately held corporation headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is backed by Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark Capital, Battery Ventures and individual investors.
About Internap
Internap is a market leader of intelligent route-control solutions that bring reliability, performance and security to the Internet. The company`s patented and patent-pending technologies address the inherent weaknesses of the Internet, enabling enterprises to take full advantage of the benefits of deploying business-critical applications such as e-commerce, Voice-over-IP (VoIP), video-conferencing, and streaming audio/video across the Internet. Through a portfolio of high-performance IP and WAN optimization solutions, customers can bypass congestion points, overcome routing inefficiencies and optimize performance of their applications. Internap solutions are backed by an industry-leading performance guarantee that covers the Internet as opposed to just one network. These offerings include: network- and premise-based route optimization solutions, colocation, VPN, content distribution and managed security services.
Internap currently serves more than 2,000 customers, including Fortune 1000 and mid-tier enterprises in the financial services, government, travel/hospitality, manufacturing, media/entertainment, technology and retail industries. The company provides services throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information, please visit the company website at www.internap.com.
Back...
