The Web may well be the shopping centre of the future, but if all
the shops are overcrowded and service is poor, customers may well
go elsewhere. Internet Traffic management is one possible
solution.
When considering implementing an Internet Traffic Management
(ITM) solution, traffic needs to be analysed in a more advanced way
than merely pushing packets from switch to server. Depending on
whom you talk to, the best solution for streamlining your data
traffic, whether for your Internet business or corporate intranet,
is a web, smart or content switch.
The principle behind a content switch is relatively simple. Like a
normal data switch, packets can be routed to servers, IP devices or
different parts of the network. With a content switch, the switch
itself is smart enough to look at the content and based on software
policy decided by the users, it will then intelligently move
packets based on many factors such as priority, load balancing or
security.A good example would be a web site with a mixture of free
and pay-per-view content. With a content switch in place, you could
look at what type of information is being accessed and, in times of
high demand, assign dedicated bandwidth or priority to users
accessing the pay-per-view content. Another good example of content
switching revolves around load balancing and scalability. Instead
of each server taking a hit as SSL connection requests are made, a
content switch would look at each SSL request and push them to a
dedicated SSL server or appliance. If demand is very high, the
content switch would intelligently balance the load across several
servers or even rationing SSL connections based on the priority of
the user making the request. The metering of services is starting
to become essential for revenue streams and content switches are
perfect for these types of services.Cisco's dominance in this field
is not as complete as in the dumb switch market. A notable
competitor is F5 who continue to push the technology envelope while
winning prestige contracts. In a recent interview with
ComputerWeekly.com, F5's Steve Goldman, VP of sales and Dave Gill,
European director, offered an insight in to this growing
market."We've been in this market for around four years and we have
seen a definite market shift towards content switching, fuelled in
part by growth of web businesses trying to get that competitive
edge," Goldman comments. "In fact we've seen our business grow by
around 20b per cent every quarter for the last 11 quarters without
fail."The trigger for a lot of this growth was an advance in
processors powering the ASICs used for examining and processing
data packets. Before this, the switches were not up to wire-speed
decision-making, reducing overall throughput. The ASICs were also
very expensive to produce and often found to be less than reliable.
This changed when a lower cost, highly programmable ASIC was
developed, which in turn allowed companies like F5 and Alteon to
produce smart switches able to function at wire speed with only a
slight cost premium."There was a time when 'always on' was enough
for many businesses," Goldman muses. "As vendors offering content
switches, trying to sell our products into the market of four years
ago was a challenge. This changed a lot with the rise of the
dotcoms. 'Always on' wasn't enough; the market now wanted services
and features from switching."Goldman's views are borne out by
figures from IDC and Meta Group, which show a trend towards
deployment of layer four and seven switches over simple switches
that use just the MAC address.The market is changing, as F5 EMEA
director, Dave Gill points out. "We have seen the market shifting
with the introduction of new types of data streams. Video, WAP and
VoIP are becoming integral to the Internet and intranets. This
means that our current generation products are designed to work
with these data types and due to the upgradability of the firmware,
as new data types emerge, customers are not forced into constantly
upgrading hardware but instead can change the embedded
software.""We are now starting to provide dedicated appliances
which hang off our BigIP product (content switch), such as the
dedicated SSL and firewall products," continues Gill. "I believe
that their popularity is due to the scalability they offer while
relieving some of the pressure of core servers."One of the most
aggressive and forward-thinking companies in this space is CyberIQ.
Although a smaller player, John Maddison the VP of Marketing is
candid about the future of the market."About four years ago, Cisco
had around 80 per cent of the market. This started to slip
drastically, so in response they bought ArrowPoint both to increase
market share and to add to their technology portfolio, but they
haven't got complete market dominance or even a technology lead."
Even though content switching is pushing the market, many customers
still equate the technology with load balancing. Maddison agrees:
"Load balancing is a good way for customers to start out with
Internet traffic management. The benefits are tangible. For
example, instead of a couple of powerful Sun boxes, you can instead
deploy a rack full of low-cost Linux machines and let the load
balancer do its job. To the user and administrator, it's seamless
and it keeps the accountants happy as well."Some vendors give the
idea that deploying content switches is a simple job. "To say that
a deploying a content switch would be simple is not completely
accurate," Madison states. "Some vendors may give that impression
but as the complexity of the implementation solution increases, so
do the complexity settings within the switch. We and a few of our
competitors have chosen a more policy-based approach that reduces
some of the more technical headaches. However a user can still get
into the guts and customise to meet their needs."Part of Madison's
openness when compared to some in the market is due to CyberIQ's
privately-owned status. However, with similarly sized PLC rivals
generating millions from IPOs, CyberIQ's status may well change.
"This is an exciting market. Speculation about IPOs and whether
players like Lucent and Nortel will buy into this growing market
all help to raise awareness. The requirements of business are
changing and many of these changes are creating new customers who
need ITM. The next big battleground will be security services like
SSL and PKI appliances and this will see many customers look to
content switching to provide a more flexible solution," comments
Maddison.The healthy competition in this market is producing some
innovative products that in turn are making the Internet a more
reliable place to do business. If you are charged with providing
Internet services for your company, e-commerce site or intranet,
you need to look at content switching. For the smaller SME, content
switching will be a poor return on investment. But for the ASP and
ISP, the real value of this new generation of switching is in
providing metered services based on different performance levels.
This is one of the biggest advantages of content switches and may
ultimately see the market forgoing the layer 2 switch
altogether.
Will Garside
w.sol.itm-t0.280700 Will garside 7/28/00 1:55 PM