A conversation with Dan Henderson of Fastsoft.

A conversation with Dan Henderson of Fastsoft.  

1. Please tell us about your current position and what you do.

My title is VP Marketing, and I’m responsible for product marketing, business strategy, fundraising. 

2. Tell us about Fastsoft and how it started.

About FastSoft
FastSoft was launched in 2006 to bring the benefits of Internet acceleration to businesses looking to speed the download and distribution of video and other digital content worldwide. Its patented FastTCP technology was developed at The California Institute of Technology’s networking laboratory (Netlab). FastTCP broke world records for Internet speed at the SuperComputing Bandwidth Challenge for four consecutive years.  The company’s patented FastTCP ™ technology updates the leading Internet transfer protocol to enable speed increases of 3–5 or up to 30 times with no technology required on the receiving end.  

3. I would like to first have you tell us what the difference between your product and the Riverbed Steelhead and Cisco WAAS. Do you compete with them?

You can think of FastSoft as the Riverbed for Web applications.  While RVBD and Cisco WAAS reduce IT infrastructure and make your WAN feel like a LAN, FastSoft reduces the need to deploy regional datacenters and makes your Web app feel like it’s local, even though it’s being served from a distance. 

4. What verticals do you see your company in at the moment?

By enabling content to remain centralized as transfer times improve, FastSoft enables leading media & entertainment, content delivery service providers, finance, healthcare, government, technology and other enterprises to increase the value of the Internet for delivering products and services and centralizing global access to digital assets.  

5. Tell me about the ROI that a customer would see from using your product.

Reducing infrastructure – that is, not building a regional datacenter, but instead serving web content from a centralized datacenter.  The “soft” ROI is the increased need for speed that many web applications require, e.g. a better quality of experience – whether it’s a faster video download, HD video, or snappier web application response. 

6. I recently tested the product and saw a results that looked really good. I went from about an hour to download a 175mb file to

3.30 minutes with your product. This was from the same server and off the same network, is this normal?

We typically see speed increases of 3–5 and up to 30 times with no technology required on the receiving end.  

7. Tell me who are your competitors.

We compete with point-to-point file transfer software, digital media management software, and content delivery providers.

Readers:

If you have Fastsoft installed in your network we would like to hear from you on how it has worked for you and what results you have seen.

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