Newsletter -- Week Ending February 14, 2003

InternetAcceleration News Summary

Move over Yogi Berra -- "I think we'll know when the mood has swung after it has swung," is what Intel's CEO Craig Barrett said Tuesday while summing up his thoughts on how the industry has bottomed out and that the uncertainty of war was thwarting the recovery.

RSVP's are coming in for our NRG N-Square (for Networking Networking or Networking with Your Networking Pals) dinner that's coming up somewhere in Silicon Valley on Tuesday, March 11th. Peter Christy will host a panel of experts on 'Why Network Systems Need Web Services." RSVP to john@netsedgeonline.com.

Add Arbor Networks to the list of companies claiming to have provided a strong defense by defeating the SQL Slammer. So far Mazu Networks and Proficient Networks also claimed successes. Slammer is yet another great example of the nature of the cyber war we're involved in. It's a good demonstration that you can't simply win the war (isn't a single problem to be solved) and that it's a fertile ground for continuing innovation. About seven years ago, we wrote a research study looking at anti-virus protection for e-mail systems. In those days, there had never been any e-mail virus attacks and it was something that enterprises gave very little thought to. Then viruses like Melissa hit and, subsequently, opened up a huge market opportunity. Today almost all corporate e-mail systems use anti-virus software. Since network attacks come in so many different shapes and sizes, this product category holds even more potential. We're planning to cover this in our report on Network Attacks due out in April. We think the Slammer will end up being the inflection point for two current ideas, just like Melissa was for AV. First, it will reinforce the understanding that the firewall problem hasn't really been solved yet. We built firewalls and then cleverly exploited the common Port 80 hole to get around them, and not surprisingly now, the cyber attack is being focused on Port 80 and the whole cycle will begin again. Secondly, we think this is a really good demonstration of the value of "anomaly detection" methods. Although Slammer was something entirely new and unexpected, the impact of Slammer was immediately visible if you were looking for anomalous network behavior. Anomaly detection is always valuable. The question is whether anomaly based systems can be refined so that they don't report excessive false positives and whether they can lead to effective mitigation actions whether or not the true nature of the problem is understood.

Last week three Internet Infrastructure companies scored $43.5M in new funding. 3ware, provider of high-capacity switched serial ATA RAID storage solutions, raised $26M in follow-on financing led by U.S. Venture Partners. Other investors included New Enterprise Associates, VantagePoint Partners and Selby Venture Partners. Sistina Software, storage infrastructure software company, secured $10M in Series B round of funding. Investors were Crescendo Ventures with Validus Partners along with Series A lead St. Paul Venture Capital. To date, the company has raised more than $20 M. Kagoor Networks, VoIP border control solutions provider, raised $7.5M in Series C financing led by VantagePoint Venture Partners and ComVentures.

Network Appliance surged ahead in its Q3 2003 with $228.5M revenue, an increase of 15% compared to revenues of $198.3M for the same period a year ago, and a 6% increase compared to $215.2M in the prior quarter. Revenues for the first nine months of the current fiscal year totaled $650.5M , compared to revenues of $593.5M for the first nine months of the prior fiscal year. And, CenterSpan Communications, software for end-to-end rich media content delivery services, announced that it would significantly reduce its workforce to reduce operating expenses.

FatPipe Networks released MPVPN version 3.0, router-clustering device, providing fault tolerance for VPN infrastructures. Packeteer announced PacketShaper Xpress combining Layer 7 classification, traffic shaping and application-intelligent acceleration. Cisco introduced the Cisco 7301 series router built for customer-edge applications. Virage announced the availability of its latest release of VS Webcasting application that is also interoperable with Cisco's Enterprise Content-Delivery Networks system. Nortel Networks introduced new networking products to improve delivering enterprise applications. Opsware, Data Center Automation software, announced the availability of the Opsware Blade Edition for the Sun Fire B100s SPARC Blade servers. Sun Microsystems shipped the Sun Fire Blade Platform, a multi-architecture blade platform. Ingrian Networks, provider of application security solutions, announced HIPAA-ready (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act) solutions for healthcare organizations. KnowNow, real-time information notification and delivery software, released KnowNow Live Browser software package. Curl launched their ‘Pilots with a Purpose,' promotion including the Curl Starter Kit, combining source code and tools. And, as mentioned, Arbor Networks' Peakflow, Rackspace Managed Hosting successfully defended its network against the SQL worm.

Seaside Software, developer of software that accelerates the performance of Microsoft Exchange, and Hewlett Packard's regional Israeli branch announced a joint marketing agreement. Expand Networks, WAN bandwidth optimization technology, and RTO Software, run-time optimization solutions, have teamed to market network and server optimization technology. Expand has also signed a distribution agreement with LWP GmbH, entering into the German market. Lane15 Software, fabric management software, and InfiniSwitch, InfiniBand switching solutions, formed a development and marketing alliance. Mazu Networks, network traffic security solutions, expanded its operations to the United Kingdom.

Customer wins: Boeing chose Loudeye to webcast Boeing Delta rocket launches. Amplify.net's iSurfJanus is being deployed in Japan by C-Five.com, a network service provider to commercial and residential buildings in Japan. ITXC has chosen the Cisco AS5000 Universal Gateway and PGW 2200 Softswitch VoIP for their next generation intercarrier voice network spanning over 175 countries. RouteScience's PathControl was selected by Homestore to enhance the performance of its flagship site, Realtor.com. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan selected the FineGround Condenser Application Acceleration Software Suite to enhance their Web-based information system for hospitals and physicians.

Executives in the News: John Thompson was named chief financial officer at Veraz Networks, provider of carrier-grade next-generation telephony solutions. NetScaler, Web application traffic control systems, appointed Sheen Khoury senior vice president of worldwide sales.

See links below for the complete text of those items mentioned above plus other news.

The InternetAcceleration newsletter and www.internetacceleration.com are produced by NetsEdge Research Group. For more information or to keep us updated, contact John Katsaros john@netsedgeonline.com.

Product News

FatPipe Networks Releases MPVPN Version 3.O -- The Industry's Only Device that Provides Fault Tolerance For VPN Infrastructures
FatPipe MPVPN v3.0 is a router-clustering device that bonds multiple connections to provide fault tolerance, additional security, speed, and improved load balancing methods over VPN tunnels...more>

Cisco Introduces the Cisco 7301 Router - the Industry's Most Robust Single-Rack-Unit Router for the Customer Network Edge
Cisco introduced the compact Cisco 7301 Series router, designed as the industry's highest-performing single-rack-unit router built for customer-edge applications such as the Internet/campus gateway or service provider managed services. PRIMUS Canada deploys Cisco 7300 Series routers to power Mission-critical network edge applications...more>

Virage Enhances Webcasting Software For Enterprise Deployments
Virage announced the availability of the latest release of its VS Webcasting application, a comprehensive software solution that empowers organizations to manage the entire workflow related to producing live, on-demand and re-broadcast events. With this latest release, the Virage webcasting software also offers enhanced interoperability with the Cisco Systems Inc. Enterprise Content-Delivery Networks (ECDN) system...more>

New KnowNow LiveBrowser Makes Web Applications Come Alive
KnowNow, provider of real-time information notification and delivery software, released KnowNow Live Browser software package, said to give Web developers the ability to add server-based notification functions and two-way, real time data exchange to thin-client browser applications...more>

Packeteer's New PacketShaper Xpress Puts Networked Applications In The Fast Lane With Acceleration
Packeteer announced PacketShaper Xpress providing application traffic acceleration - combining Layer 7 classification, traffic shaping and application-intelligent acceleration...more>

Opsware Inc. To Automate Management Of Sun Blade Servers
Opsware, provider of Data Center Automation (DCA) software, announced availability of the Opsware Blade Edition for the Sun Fire B100s SPARC Blade servers. In addition, Sun has selected Opsware to join Sun's Blade Solutions Community...more>

Nortel Networks Introduces New Technologies to Deliver Enterprise Applications
Advanced Business Connectivity is designed to provide a consistent experience for users, whether sitting at a desk at the company's headquarters, at a customer site, or via an Internet kiosk at an airport. The experience should also remain consistent regardless of the type of device used to access the network...more>

New Products from Nortel Networks Offer Enterprises Improved Performance, Reliability
Nortel introduced new products in its enterprise application networking portfolio designed to help small- and medium-sized companies realize improved performance, reliability, security, scalability and efficiency in their communications networks. Scaleable to meet unique customer requirements, these new products -- the Nortel Networks Passport* 1600 series and Nortel Networks BayStack* 380-24F switch...more>

New Services from Sun Speed the Deployment of Network Computing Elements, Pave the Way to the N1 Data Center
Sun Microsystems, announced new services that will assist customers to deploy and manage the new Sun Fire Blade Platform and N1 architectures. N1, Sun's multi-platform, multi-vendor operating environment for network computing, virtualizes widely distributed network computing resources and elements (servers, storage, software and networking) and enables them to dynamically operate as a single, powerful network computer...more>

Sun Ships Industry's First Multi-Architecture Blade Platform with N1 Virtualization for Maximum Flexibility & Efficiency
Sun announced Sun Fire Blade Platform, a system enabling customers to mix, match and manage Solaris[tm] and Linux operating systems, SPARC and x86 architectures and special function blades in the same chassis...more>

Ingrian Networks Offers HIPAA-Ready Solutions for Supporting HIPAA Privacy and Security Guidelines
Ingrian Networks, provider of application security for Internet-powered businesses, announced solution strategies to help healthcare organizations address HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act) requirements for privacy of Web transactions containing Protected Health Information (PHI). Healthcare organizations must be compliant with HIPAA privacy regulations by April 14, 2003...more>

Curl Launches "Pilots With A Purpose" Promotion To Streamline Rich Client Adoption
"Pilots with a Purpose" promotion is an introduction to building rich client applications using the Curl Client/Web Platform, particularly aimed at financial services, life sciences, utilities, and retail organizations. At the core of the promotion is the Curl Starter Kit, combining source code and tools, and intensive training...more>

Equipped with Arbor Networks' Peakflow, Rackspace Managed Hosting Staves Off SQL Worm
Arbor Networks, network anomaly detection solutions provider, announced that Rackspace Managed Hosting successfully defended its network against the SQL worm that plagued networks worldwide through its use of Peakflow, Arbor's patent-pending infrastructure security solution...more>

Agreements/Partnerships

Expand Brings WAN Expansion Technology to Germany
Expand Networks, a leader in bandwidth optimization technology, announced that it has entered the German market with its first local distribution agreement with LWP GmbH, which specializes in Server-Based Computing technologies...more>

Expand Networks And RTO Software Drive Down Cost Of Server Based Computing Across The Enterprise
Expand Networks, WAN bandwidth optimization technology and RTO Software, run time optimization solutions, announced that they have teamed up to market network and server optimization technology to improve the performance of Server Based Computing infrastructures...more>

Lane15 Software and InfiniSwitch Corporation Form Strategic Alliance
Lane15 Software, provider of enterprise-ready fabric management software, and InfiniSwitch Corporation, high-performance InfiniBand switching solutions, announced they have formed a development and marketing alliance to provide comprehensive fabric computing solutions to the high-performance and enterprise-class data center markets...more>

Seaside Software and HP Announce Distribution Partnership Companies Sign Joint Marketing Agreement to Sell Seaside's HiPerExchange
Seaside Software, a developer of software that accelerates the performance of Microsoft Exchange, has signed a joint marketing agreement with Hewlett-Packard Company's regional Israeli branch...more>

Corporate News

3ware Raises $26 Million in Follow-on Financing Led by U.S. Venture Partners
3ware, provider of high-capacity switched serial ATA RAID storage solutions, completed a $26 million round of financing led by U.S. Venture Partners. Other investors included New Enterprise Associates, VantagePoint Venture Partners, Selby Venture Partners among others....more>

Sistina Secures $10 Million in Funding to Advance Leadership Position in the Storage Infrastructure Software Market
Sistina Software, storage infrastructure software company, secured $10 million in Series B round of funding. Investors were Crescendo Ventures with Validus Partners along with Series A lead St. Paul Venture Capital. To date, the company has raised more than $20 million...more>

Kagoor Networks Starts 2003 with $7.5 Million in Series C Financing
Kagoor Networks, Voice-over-IP (VoIP) Border Control solutions, has raised $7.5 million in its third round of financing. VantagePoint Venture Partners and ComVentures jointly led the round and continued as return investors along with several smaller investors...more>

Network Appliance Announces Results for Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2003
Revenues for the third quarter fiscal 2003 were $228.5 million, an increase of 15% compared to revenues of $198.3 million for the same period a year ago, and a 6% increase compared to $215.2 million in the prior quarter. Revenues for the first nine months of the current fiscal year totaled $650.5 million, compared to revenues of $593.5 million for the first nine months of the prior fiscal year...more>

CenterSpan Reduces Headcount and Operating Expenses
CenterSpan Communications, provider of software based end-to-end rich media content delivery services, announced it has taken steps to significantly reduce operating expenses through a reduction in force that was effective February 7, 2003. Number was not released...more>

NetScaler, Web application traffic control systems, appointed Sheen Khoury senior vice president of worldwide sales.
Khoury formerly served as vice president of sales at Good Technology...more>

John Thompson named chief financial officer at Veraz Networks, provider of carrier-grade next-generation telephony solutions.
Prior to Veraz Networks, Thompson held management positions at Hewlett Packard and Oracle...more>

Mazu Networks Expands Business Operations to the United Kingdom
Mazu Networks, provider of network traffic security solutions, announced the expansion of its business operations to the United Kingdom...more>

KnowNow Receives Top Honors in 2002 InfoWorld Technology of the Year Awards
Among those chosen by the InfoWorld Test Center, KnowNow, provider of real-time information notification and delivery software, received the honor for its KnowNow LiveData Platform, which offers publish and subscribe messaging at Internet scale represents one of the best products in the 10 technology categories that Test Center analysts and editors deemed most important to enterprises in 2002...more>

Customer Announcements

ITXC Corp Chooses Cisco Systems, Inc, for World's Largest Voice over IP Network
ITXC Corp has chosen the Cisco AS5000 Universal Gateway and PGW 2200 Softswitch Voice Over IP (VoIP) offerings as the basis for the next generation of ITXC's worldwide ITXC.net inter-carrier voice network currently spanning over 175 countries...more>

Boeing Chooses Loudeye To Webcast Rocket Launches
Loudeye, Webcasting and digital media solutions provider, was chosen by Boeing to provide Webcasting services live and on-demand for Boeing customers and partners interested in the Boeing Delta family of launch vehicles...more>

Network Service Provider C-FIVE.COM Deploys Amplify.net's Multi-Homed WAN Gateway in Japan's Large Condominium Buildings
Amplify.net's iSurfJanus Family of Secured Multi-homed WAN Gateways is being widely deployed in Japan by C-FIVE.COM Co. Ltd. ("C5"), a network service provider specializing in design, construction and maintenance management of IT and Internet access services to commercial and residential buildings in Japan...more>

Homestore, Inc. Selects RouteScience PathControl
Homestore has selected RouteScience PathControl to control the cost and enhance the performance of its Internet connectivity for its flagship site, REALTOR.com, database of homes for sale and serves over 800,000 realtors...more>

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Improves Communications to Hospitals and Doctors by Utilizing the FineGround Condenser Suite
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) selected the FineGround Condenser Application Acceleration Software Suite to enhance the performance of BCBSM's web-based information system for hospitals and physicians referred to as web-DENIS. Web-DENIS allows for a secure, private network access for hospitals and doctor's offices to review patient insurance information, patient history of claims as well as current status of claims...more>

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