A network traffic-management solution answers a fashion question.

A popular catalog features Internet traffic-management so millions of viewers can enjoy a visit to its virtual runway.

Victoria's Secret, a branch of Intimate Brands, Inc., produces a highly sophisticated catalog that graces many a lady's nightstand. Translating the catalog into an online experience, Victoria's Secret was one of the first retailers to become an e-retailer. With the world's first virtual fashion show Webcast in 1999, Victoria's Secret created a record-breaking online event, producing more hits to a Web site than the Internet generation had ever seen.

That Webcast's appeal surprised the media, retail executives and network administrators alike, producing bottlenecks at every Web server and frustration in the faces of viewers all over the world. Engineers and technical support spent the next 12 months creating and developing a complex network solution with the help of Akamai, IBM, RADWARE, and Sun Microsystems. These technologies enabled Victoria's Secret to broad cast its May 2000 Fashion Show Webcast, live from Cannes, France, over the Internet and onto the screens of two million-plus computers without fail.

"Because of the overwhelming number of hits VictoriasSecret.com received during last year's show, Victoria's Secret took no chances in the design of its network solution to support this year's show," says Tim Plzak, director of advanced technology, Limited Technology Services, the IT arm of Intimate Brands. An important part of that solution was Internet traffic management (ITM), specifically load-balancing devices.

As more companies rely on e-business to increase revenue, ITM technology is fast becoming the backbone of network design. ITM devices sit between the Internet and Web servers, firewalls and caching devices absorbing each hit as it comes in and directing user traffic to the most-available Web server based on the number of hits (load) it receives or proximity (the location of the closest Web server). ITM devices come in a number of shapes and sizes to load-balance various parts of the network: Web servers, firewalls, caching devices and wide area network (WAN) links.

Incorporating ITM devices can improve the performance, availability and security of the network. Utilizing multiple ITM devices in a network creates fault tolerance and redundancy, ensuring that if one device should be taken down for maintenance or repair, hits to the site are transparently routed through a live ITM device. Using ITM technology, Victoria's Secret guaranteed that every hit to VictoriasSecret.com would result in a successful transmission of content to the end user.

The ITM technology was deployed months in advance and tested repeatedly to ensure a trouble-free consumer experience the day of the show. Victoria's Secret utilized RADWARE's Web Server Director-Pro (WSD-Pro) and Web Server Director for Distributed Sites (WSD-DS) to accomplish both local and global site failover and optimization. As many as 13 such devices were installed from Atlanta to San Jose to handle all incoming user requests, and at least two of each product were installed at each location to provide fault tolerance and redundancy.

Using the RADWARE ITM solution, Akamai's hosting and image-storing services, and IBM's global services, Victoria's Secret's solution optimized the VictoriasSecret.com consumer experience with an overall site performance boost, reduced user wait time and consistent access to the Victoria's Secret brand.

When the Victoria's Secret Web site reached capacity, the ITM solution used a gatekeeper-like mechanism to redirect new incoming traffic to the "eLounge," a site hosted on external servers at Akamai containing special-edition content-with the exception of actual e-commerce.

The gatekeeper mechanism also indirectly assisted consumers when the fashion show Webcast reached capacity; a window appeared offering them the option of visiting the Glam Lounge, featuring interviews, videos and more.

This year's VictoriasSecret.com fashion show Webcast was one of the largest tests of the ability of advancing technology to handle massive, real-time video over the Internet.

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