| Who's speeding up the delivery | |||||
| Company/URL | Tier | Solution | Partner Samples | Pricing | Clients |
| Akamai Technologies Inc. www.akamai.com | 1,2,3 | Akamai provides reliability and acceleration services using mathematical algorithms for real-time routing, intelligent mapping, and a globally distributed network of edge servers deployed inside 650+ tier 1 Internet backbones, ISPs, cable head ends, DSL providers and satellite facilities. | CacheFlow, FireClick, Resonate, Vignette, PSINet, Web Emporium, EyeWonder | Services are priced on a consultative basis according to customer needs | Tower Records, Ticketmaster, Victoria's Secret |
| Boostworks Inc. www.boostworks.com | 4 | BoostWeb: Acceleration proxy reshapes content to create homogeneous data, making compression more efficient and speeding delivery to the end user; architecture includes of discovery (identifies traffic type), optimization (text compression and image optimization), and object level cache (stores and accelerates optimized instances of web objects). | Cisco, Resonate, Intel, Yamada | Server license software is $10,000 per CPU per server | France Telecom, Reuters, Panasonic |
| CacheFlow Inc., www.cacheflow.com | 1 | cIQ Content Delivery Architecture: Web Server Accelerator - rack-mounted appliance that sits in front of the website, offloads Web servers from content delivery and security tasks; cIQ Director - manages content network from back-end operations, incl. storage, publishing, network management, billing and reporting. cIQ Services offered include streaming services and content filtering | Akamai, EMC, Marimba, WebTrends, Foundry, Extreme Networks | 700 series ranges from $9,995 to $24,995; 7000 series (w/ more redundancy/capacity "inside the box") ranges from $49,000 to $112,000 | KBKids.com, Rivals.com, JcPenney.com, Lycos |
| Digital
Island Inc. www.digitalisland.com |
2 | Footprint Content Delivery Network: moves all content types (streaming media, authenticated content and dynamic content) closer to end users; Uses publishing tools to change URLs to speed delivery to closest/fastest servers | Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Inktomi, Real Networks | Doesn't disclose; subscription-based service | ZDNet, AOL, Universal Music Group |
| Exodus
Communications
Inc. www.exodus.com |
1, 2, 3 | Content Distribution and Caching Service: three-tiered content distribution suite of Server Side Acceleration (for back-end servers); Network Acceleration (moves content past network congestion points closer to end users); and Edge Acceleration (Uses cached content sitting at ISP to see and control content being delivered from those caches) | Volera, Mirror Image Internet, Content Bridge Alliance | For Server Side, pay for what you use; CacheFlow or Network Appliance service priced per box (monthly or straight resell); Network Acceleration, monthly Mbps or GB delivered | Toys R Us, Wineshopper.com, SharperImage.com |
| Fireclick www.fireclick.com |
4 | BlueFlame, NetFlame: uses predictive algorithms to preload web pages into users computer cache to speed up download time | Akamai, Alteon Web Systems, ArrowPoint Communications, Cisco Systems, F5, Foundry Networks, HP, Resonate, Sun | Pricing service-based. BlueFlame 2.0 monthly fee based on amount of traffic accelerated. NetFlamet based on number of page views accelerated per month | Art.com, Petopia, Novica.com |
| Inktomi
Corp. www.inktomi.com |
3 | Traffic Server: Network cache stores content at the edges of the network to speed delivery; Content Delivery Suite - software solution manages replication, distribution, and tracking of content over networks. (solutions can be purchased and deployed separately) | HP, Compaq, Microsoft, 3Com | Licensed software, price not disclosed | AOL, Digital Island, Exodus Communications |
| Mirror
Image Internet www.mirror-image.com |
2 | instaDelivery Internet Services: Uses global Content Applicatoin Point network with 22 worldwide points to offload origin server by placing content close to users. Provides services to ISPs or content providers. | Cisco, HP, Sun, Exodus | Payment is per megabytes per second used | Merrill Lynch, Bridgestone/Firestone, Corvis, Germany.net |
| Network
Appliance www.netapp.com |
2,3 | NetCache C1100/C3100/C6100: A rack-mountable proxy cache server; mirrors content close to end users, reducing redundant traffic. C1100 entry-level; C3100 mid-range; C6100 - for rapidly growing sites. | Foundry, Microsoft, Real Networks, Apple, Vignette | Ranges from $6,000 to $100,000 | Multex.com, Palm Computing, Columbia House |
| Packeteer
Inc. www.packeteer.com |
4 | PacketShaper: Provisions bandwidth around the web from the data center; classifies requests by file types and allows a percentage of bandwidth prescribed by client to be devoted to various requests. AppCelera: Rack-mountable appliance sits in front of web server; adapts content to end user by browser type, connection speed. | NA | PacketShaper monitoring $3,000 to $4,000; AppCelera ICX 55-handles 200 connections per second-$10,000; ICX 75-400 connections per seond, $18,000; | Pepsi, Charter Communications, CarsDirect.com |
| RichFX www.richfx.com |
4 | Photo file compression) RichFX Server: Compression algorithms allow proprietary VPEG files to stream 1/20 to 1/100 the size of MPEG; client receives only information requested from the server. RichFX Player: Caches images when a client streams RichFX content, conserving bandwidth. | Real Networks, Discreet, API | Base licensing fee (based on site traffic per month) starts $15,000 | Nieman Marcus, Coach, Origins, Reader's Digest |
| SpiderCache www.spidercache.com |
1 | SpiderCache caches dynamic web content to reduce the load on web server, increase page response times and allow more concurrent users to be served. | Microsoft, Sun | Per CPU starting at $3K for NT and $5K for Unix. Steep discounting based on number of CPUs. | eVineyard.com, newyork.com, players-racing.com |
| Stratacache www.stratachache.com |
1,2 | Stratacache provides a family of acceleration products that use managed caching, content distribution and edge content delivery solutions. | Edgix | NA | NA |
| Vignette www.vignette.com |
1 | Vignette is largely a content management vendor; but provides its own component caching technology at the web server tier. Unique in that it integrates content management with cache management and integrates the management of static and dynamic content with content acceleration in one solution. Also packages integrations with Inktomi, Akamai, and CacheFlow. | Akamai, Digital Island, CacheFlow | Didn't disclose | Lands' End, Delta Airlines, Dell, Charles Schwab |
| Volera
Inc. www.volera.com |
1 | Excelerator: Cache engine offloads repetitive and resource-intensive activities from the web server, distributing popular content closer to the client; Content Exchange: Fully hosted service built on Volera's Excelerator, serves as front-end accelerator | Compaq, Hitachi, IBM, Stratacache | Doesn't disclose | AT&T, CompuCom, Southwest Airlines |
| wwWhoosh
Inc. www.wwwhoosh.com |
2,3, 4 | WebFlight 2.1: acts as an internet proxy, improves content acceleration for content providers and web hosters, and improves browser performance for end users with patented software that combines caching, file compression and repackaging that reduces server workload, Internet bandwidth consumption, and end user waiting time. | NA | Pricing is based on gigs consumed | Cooking.com, Target.com, Walmart.com |