Caching for ISPs and Enterprise Users

Inktomi Corp. has built in some major enhancements to its Traffic Server caching app, enabling it to support multiple media streaming and advanced Web hosting features.

Traffic Server 2.0, to be released in October, will be the first caching app capable of carrying the forthcoming release of RealNetworks G2 server using code co-developed by Inktomi and RealNetworks. G2, now in beta, will deliver multiple media types simultaneously using industry-standard protocols.

"This will let ISPs store video and audio streams at distributed points across the network and streamline users' access to content," said Peter Galvin, general manager of Inktomi's Traffic Server unit.

The app's Web-hosting capabilities, meanwhile, will let ISPs distribute content over multiple servers using an accelerated proxy scheme. With this feature, frequently requested data can be stored in servers located at the edge of an ISP's network. To ensure that key pages are always available, Traffic Server will be able to identify those documents via "pinning," Galvin said.

"Caching has a lot of value both to ISPs and to the enterprise," said Zona Research analyst Jim Balderston. "The more ISPs that deploy caching the better the response and performance of their networks."

For the enterprise, which is about 12 to 18 months behind ISPs in their adoption of caching, Balderston said developments such as Traffic Server provide a glimpse into how corporations may optimize their networks using caching. "The enterprise has any number of opportunities (to use caching). If I have five locations of 2,000 people each, do I want everyone traveling to the central server using [expensive bandwidth]? Or do I want to cache large portions of the intranet in each home office?"

Traffic Server, Balderston added, will provide many of the cache capabilities ISPs--and by extension the enterprise--will need to move greater sums of data. "It's not the second coming, but Inktomi is putting a lot of pressure on its competitors."

Beyond support for G2 and multiple Web hosting, Traffic Server 2.0 also will support the NNTP protocol. The app also boasts SNMP hooks, allowing administrators to oversee Traffic Server from a centralized management console.

Traffic Server 2.0 is priced $30,000 per CPU; current customers will get the upgraded version free of charge. The RealNetworks G2 media module will be released at a later date; pricing has not been determined.