* A look at what network applicances do
Don’t just call them network appliances any more. According to our Special Focus author (phochmuth@nww.com) emerging traffic optimization and application acceleration devices feature Layer 4-7 switching along with other technical hooks and tricks aimed at making corporate servers run faster.
Some observers say these appliances also consolidate, and even outperform, features of products from traditional vendors such as Cisco, F5 Networks, Foundry Networks, Nortel and Radware.
Legacy vendors are leading the charge. NetScaler had been a large vendor among ISPs and carriers during the dot-com/telecom bubble, as its Layer 4-7 switches were used to front Web sites and server cages in large hosting centers. When its key markets collapsed, the company refocused on enterprise customers and reengineered its products to provide more types of services appropriate for corporate users.
On the architecture front, NetScaler introduced its 9000 and 9300 series of appliances, which are based on Intel Xeon processors and resemble PCs more rather than ASCI-based application switches. The devices include a Layer 4-7 packet inspection engine, which can load balance and switch traffic to different servers based on high-level packet data.
Another new vendor in the data center box area is Redline Networks. Like NetScaler, Redline sells a device that is based on Intel hardware that provides compression, multi-layer traffic routing, TCP offload and load balancing.
In addition to the traffic compression, Redline acts as a load balancer among data center servers. The box also offloads SSL encryption from the servers.
These are but a few of the stories in our Special Focus section this week. Take a look: https://www.nwfusions.com/news/2004/0621specialfocus.html
