CacheFlow Inc. is rolling out five cache devices aimed at boosting response time on users’ high-end Web and e-commerce sites and reducing the number of servers they have to buy to keep those sites up and running.
CacheFlow says its new Server Accelerator family lets customers serve five to 10 times more content using their existing server and network infrastructure – and simultaneously speed response times to end users by 50 to 80 per cent.
The low-end Server Accelerators 710, 725 and 745, the midrange 3725 and the high-end 5725 are all designed to sit in front of a Web or e-commerce site’s Web servers and handle requests for content that would otherwise tax the Web servers. The caches serve content, such as retail catalog pages, and bring it to the end user faster than a Web server. The Web server is left free to handle other types of requests, such as shopping cart pages or database transactions.
The high-end Server Accelerator 5725 features 4G bytes of RAM, 36G bytes of storage and four 10/100/1000M bit/sec ports. The midrange 3725 Server Accelerator features 1G byte of RAM, 36G bytes of storage and three 10/100/1000 ports. The 5725 and 3725 can be upgraded to include Secure Sockets Layer processing, which lets them handle encryption- and decryption-related processing to secure transactions. The low-end 710, 725 and 745 Server Accelerators feature 512M to 1G byte of RAM, 20G to 72G bytes of storage and two 10/100 ports.
Glenn Kaino, executive vice-president and head of programming at Farmclub.com, said his company has already been using CacheFlow devices to front end Web servers, but is testing models specifically to speed Web site development time.
“If the box works right, we will have the opportunity to have a development site and staging site that mimics a real-world capacity system,” Kaino said. He notes his firm now has to do some time-consuming testing and coding with Web site material between development and deployment of content that could be automated using the CacheFlow cache devices, such as readying content to be placed on Akamai’s content distribution network. “Using the new caches, we could automate that process and send content directly from the development server to the cache server,” Kaino said.
All CacheFlow’s Server Accelerators are available now. The high-end 5725 costs US$84,995. The midrange 3725 costs $39,995. The low-end 710, 725 and 745 are priced from $9,995 to $24,995.
