* WebAccelerator uses technology from F5's acquisition of Swan Labs
F5 Networks last week announced plans to expand its product suite to include a new offering that would help enterprise companies speed Web-based application traffic over wide-area connections.
WebAccelerator uses technology from its 2005 acquisition of Swan Labs. The product is available as a software module for customers of F5’s existing Layer 4-7 Big-IP switch and as an appliance for stand-alone purchases.
The technology was previously available to F5 customers as Swan Labs’ WANJet appliance. WebAccelerator, F5 says, can help customers speed Web-based application traffic over WAN connections to improve performance for remote or mobile users.
F5 says WebAccelerator is able to speed traffic without requiring clients to be downloaded or changes to be made to the browser. The technology uses a feature F5 dubs intelligent browser referencing (IBR) that will only serve dynamic, or fresh, content out to users, reducing the data being sent and ultimately speeding transfer times. The company also included a feature that allows multiple HTTP connection per site at a time to same host or domain. (Typically, Internet Explorer will only allow two simultaneous connections at a time.) This multi-connect feature, F5 says, enables more simultaneous browser connections, therefore speeding the page load time for clients. And another feature enables immediate viewing of PDF documents, the company says.
WebAccelerator is typically deployed close to the Web applications, meaning near the Web servers, and with the Big-IP version in front of the Web servers. Both versions of the product are available now.
Big-IP WebAccelerator is available as a software module and add-on to 6400, 6800, 8400 and 8800 switches, and costs about $25,000 per Big-IP. WebAccelerator 4500 appliances are priced at about $60,000 for a stand-alone device and for about $28,000 for a remote appliance.
