Thanks – and Speedera’s SpeedSuite

I’d like to start off this newsletter with a huge thank you for my colleague Denise Dubie, who did a great job filling in for me while I was out on maternity leave. I’m back now – a bit sleep deprived, but anxious to hear what has been on your minds when it comes to Web acceleration. Any areas of particular interest these days? Let me know what topics you’d like me to focus on in the coming months. E-mail me at mailto:jmears@nww.com

It’s no surprise that traffic to news and government sites has jumped exponentially with the ongoing war in Iraq. Just like after Sept. 11, many of these sites have turned to content delivery network (CDN) providers to help them handle the load and keep their sites moving quickly.

One CDN is rolling out a new service specifically for Web sites experiencing the war-related crush or unexpected onslaughts of traffic. Speedera last week released SpeedSuite for Site Assurance, a service that gives customers up to 1G bit/sec of additional traffic capacity.

The idea behind SpeedSuite for Site Assurance, according to Speedera, is to provide media outlets and government Web sites with the capacity they need when they need it, enabling them to avoid having to provision additional bandwidth, invest in more infrastructure or make long-term commitments with service providers.

Instead, customers can sign up for SpeedSuite Site Assurance for as little as one month. Once the service is set up, it can be turned on at any time, either immediately or within three hours to respond to an unexpected rise in traffic.

The SpeedSuite service includes site monitoring and the delivery of any kind of site content – Web pages, graphics, on-demand streaming, live streaming, and downloads.

The monthly service charge is $10,000, and the setup fee is $7,500. There are no bursting charges.