Personalized Sites Get A Performance Lift With Web Cache

The increased emphasis on personalizing Web-site data can render simple caching obsolete.

TimesTen Performance Software next week will introduce Front-Tier 1.2, dynamic caching software that improves the performance of Web sites that use extensive personalization features.

While many commerce and informational sites are trying to improve the user's experience by accelerating Web page delivery and download times, the challenge of personalization is that each user requires different data to be extracted from back-end databases for presentation.

In the case of entertainment Web site CheckOut.com, for example, one person may be more interested in its games than in music, so the content of the pages will reflect this preference.

"To deliver a truly personalized experience to users, you have to cache dynamic data in real time," said Edmond Mesrobian, chief technology officer of CheckOut.com. "This allows you to present very targeted information to each user while ensuring that their interactions are synchronized with the back-end database."

TimesTen officials said static caches, while improving the performance of pages with predefined content, do not do a good job when much of a page's content is customized.

TimesTen's caching software resides between a corporate firewall and back-end database servers. Essentially, this is the area where cache appliances and load-balancing switches work to improve site performance by placing content that is frequently accessed closer to users. TimesTen, by contrast, caches selective content based on a user's preference when the user accesses a site.

Front-Tier runs on an application server and extracts data from Oracle databases using SQL scripts. The data is moved to caches and replicated across all the caches employed by a site.

This can be useful in sites when a user is filling a shopping cart. In some cases, Web sites have put load-balancing switches in front of server farms, and users get switched to another server while in the process of shopping. At that point, the contents of their shopping cart may not have been passed along, and the user must start over.

With the TimesTen approach, the shopping-cart info would be replicated to all caches. So if a user is load-balanced away, the contents of the cart are not lost.

Front-Tier 1.2 is certified to work on commonly used application servers, including the BEA WebLogic Server, Netscape Application Server and the Art Technology Group's Dynamo Personalization Server. On the back end, Front-Tier 1.2 supports the Oracle8 and Oracle8i databases.

"Systems that make data more responsive to buyers' needs can build customer relationships and drive sales," said Kevin Smith, vice president of business development at Fort Point Partners, another customer-evaluating the product.

Front-Tier 1.2 will ship in early March. Pricing ranges from $20,000 to $80,000 depending on the size of the data cache. IT managers may also choose a subscription option priced from $2,745 to $12,075 per quarter.