Business continuity from the edge

The year 2001 was a big one for content networking. There were some casualties, like Adero and Edgix, but the market as a whole matured. After initially focusing on dot-coms and then turning to service providers, the content delivery market by the end of 2001 was focused squarely on the enterprise.

And that's where a lot of attention will continue to be placed as enterprises Web-enable more of their applications and processes. It just makes sense. As more content goes on the enterprise network, there will be a greater need to speed delivery and increase reliability. Content networking isn't just for improving the performance of Web pages on the public Internet anymore.

Consider recent announcements from Digital Island and Akamai. Both content delivery networks announced so-called business continuity services at Internet World in New York in December. The fact is, both companies say, enterprises are putting important applications on the Web, and they don't want to worry about downtime. Both providers announced services that virtually guarantee availability 100% of the time.

Akamai also took the wraps off services that provide greater security for enterprise content that is moved on its public network.

Digital Island, on the other hand, isn't even asking that content be put on its devices. Its service actually allows enterprises to keep their content in their own data centers but use Digital Island technology to create their own CDN. Look for more interesting offerings from DI and Akamai and other CDN providers in 2002.

Denise Dubie is a Staff Writer covering network management at Network World. She also works as a freelance writer in the Boston area. You can reach her at ddubie@nww.com.

Digital Island lets users set own content delivery specs