'Net cache speeds response time

SUNNYVALE, CALIF. - CacheFlow's new high-end caching appliances may help provide bandwidth and speedy access for network managers building Web front ends for large enterprise applications and network services.

The CacheFlow 5000 series dedicated Internet accelerators come in chassislike units and can scale up to OC-12 - higher than any other caching device on the market, the company claims. This will let network executives use application service providers, thin clients and other means to move enterprise systems off the desktop and onto the network.

The 5000 has an expandable multiprocessor platform and consists of a base unit and add-on expansion trays. The base unit has a motherboard and power supplies. The expansion trays contain disk drives and memory, and scale from T-3 to OC-12 speeds. The base price for a T-3 system, which is nearly 45M bit/sec, is almost $80,000. By contrast, CacheFlow's entry-level CS-100 supports speeds up to 1M bit/sec and costs $8,900.

CacheFlow has begun calling its products Internet accelerators instead of caching devices because the dedicated operating system also speeds the delivery of Web pages that aren't yet in the cache.

"A traditional cache is designed to save bandwidth, not reduce response time," says Kelly Herrell, vice president of marketing.

The new CacheFlow devices speed response by opening multiple links to servers, instead of one link at a time. When a user enters a URL in a browser, the browser typically goes through the Internet to request that page from the server. If a page has 30 objects on it, including text, graphics and video, the browser would have to open and close 30 connections to get all the objects. CacheFlow instead opens multiple connections simultaneously, which causes the page to be delivered to the browser much faster.

Initially, the 5000 series will sell to Internet backbone providers, but in the coming year, some analysts see the big boxes moving to the enterprise.

"The big market that we see for caching in the enterprise will come as all of the business systems get Webified," says Peter Christy, principal analyst at Collaborative Research.

By Webified, he means the move toward using browsers to access applications that are internal on a network.

The CacheFlow 5000 will ship in June. The base unit costs $39,950, but has no drives or memory, and requires add-on expansion trays. The price for a unit that can handle T-3 speeds is $79,950.

CacheFlow: (408) 220-2200