ArrowPoint Web Switches Boost Cache Performance by Nearly 400 Percent Over Traditional Solutions.

WESTFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 16, 1999--

Renaissance Worldwide and ArrowPoint establish

first comprehensive, independently validated benchmark

of performance optimization for transparent caching

ArrowPoint Communications Inc., the pioneer of Web switching solutions that optimize Web response time and content availability, has established a formidable benchmark in the industry's first independent performance testing of Web switches used in conjunction with transparent caching. The testing, conducted by Renaissance Worldwide, confirmed the superiority of ArrowPoint's Content Smart(tm) Web switches over Layer 4 switching and router-based solutions by delivering a performance advantage for Web traffic management of close to 400 percent in a transparent caching configuration. Transparent caching allows service providers to speed delivery of frequently-requested Web content by storing copies closer to the users requesting it, without requiring configuration changes to the user's Web browsers.

Renaissance Worldwide, an internationally recognized provider of information technology measurement and consulting, observed and monitored the results of the performance testing. The testing was conducted by Mikhail Mikhailov, a PHD candidate of the Computer Science department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and co-author of a paper on the cacheability of Web objects published for the 1999 Web Caching Workshop and in the proceedings for the 8th International Worldwide Web Conference. The Renaissance report detailing the methodology and results of the test was authored by John Morency, Renaissance's vice president of IT consulting services, and can be found at www.renaissance.com/arrowpoint.

"ArrowPoint's Content Smart Web switches represent an incredible, substantiated benefit for caching technology, minimizing user response latency and providing a dramatic return on investment for service providers," said John Morency, Renaissance's vice president of IT consulting services. "This test demonstrates service providers can boost performance of a transparent caching solution 200 to 400 percent or more by using content-aware Web switching, requiring fewer caches to handle a given amount of traffic. Web switching delivers a significant competitive advantage for service providers that handle large volumes of Web traffic, and it's a solution service providers can install today, and begin realizing benefits almost immediately."

ArrowPoint's Web switches look deep into the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request headers all the way down to the URL and cookies to determine what content is being requested. Looking at the complete URL - including dynamically generated URLs with strings of more than 256 bytes - is the only reliable method for determining what content a user is requesting. By accessing information at this level, ArrowPoint's Web switches can reliably bypass caches for non-cacheable content such as Common Gateway Interface (CGI), Active Server Pages (ASP), or database queries, and transmit these non-cacheable requests directly to the origin server. This dramatically improves Web response times by eliminating the latency caused when caches must forward requests for non-cacheable content to the Internet. In addition, ArrowPoint's Web switches enable Web administrators to create an unlimited number of content rules that bypass the cache for cacheable content at their behest. Content that Web administrators might deem should be non-cacheable could include, for example, real-time stock quotes or frequently changed Web pages.

Layer 4 switches and Routers, on the other hand, identify traffic based on Internet Protocol (IP) destination addresses and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Port 80. This means all HTTP requests, including those for dynamic content, are routed to the transparent caches. With this approach, caches incur additional processing overhead when they must forward requests for dynamic content to origin servers, resulting in slower response times for Web users.

"All types of organizations are looking to implement caching to improve Web response time, and ArrowPoint's unique content intelligence delivers a significant competitive advantage for any caching implementation," said Cheng Wu, ArrowPoint's president and CEO. "For example, Road Runner, the nation's leading high-speed online service provider, is using ArrowPoint's Web switches to "seed" their caches with content from the Road Runner portal since all of their users are initially configured with the portal as their home page. This has improved the performance of their network by 50 to 75 percent and reduced the need for Road Runner to purchase additional bandwidth. This testing validates what industry leaders like Road Runner have proved in practice - that ArrowPoint's Content Smart Web switching technology is the industry's most powerful solution for optimizing Web caches."

Methodology

Using the industry's only test suite capable of emulating real-world Web traffic, the testing simulated the Web traffic volumes typical of the average Internet service provider's dial-up or broadband point-of-presence (POP), gauging transparent caching performance in conjunction with various levels of switch intelligence. The test-bed simulated a POP, receiving content requests from 60 to 240 users at a time. A sample set of 40,000 unique URLs, using a distribution of files with an average size of 10,000 bytes was tested against 50, 70 and 100 percent cacheable content.

By simulating HTTP requests and responses, the test gauged the performance impact on the transparent cache as the percentage of non-cacheable content was increased. The test pitted "content-blind" Layer 4 diversion methods that intercept and forward all HTTP requests to the cache (regardless of the percentage of non-cacheable content being requested) against ArrowPoint's Content Smart Web switches that direct only cacheable requests to the cache.

In these tests, the actual performance improvements attributable to the use of Layer 5 processing ranged from a low of 289 percent in the 240 client case to a high of 387 percent in the 120 client case. In addition, the measured peak flows per second using Layer 5 processing was 1800 flows per second in the 180 client case versus a comparable rate of approximately 408 flows per second in the 180 client Layer 4 case. Performance peaked at 1800 flows per second in the Layer 5 case due to the cache engine CPU becoming the test bottleneck.

The conclusion of these results is that, using the CS-100 as the common Web switch, the ArrowPoint's Content Smart Web switches optimize products from all major cache vendors, including CacheFlow, InfoLibria, Inktomi, Lucent, Network Appliance, and Novell, and offer a more than 36,000 percent return on investment for transparent caching implementations.

About Renaissance

Renaissance Worldwide is a leading global provider of information technology and management consulting. Recognized by Consultant News as one of the world's 30 largest consulting firms, Renaissance is committed to delivering a seamless approach to business, technology and professional services by combining excellence in execution with continuous innovation. From more than 100 U.S. and international locations, Renaissance Worldwide comprises talents of more than 5,200 professionals with world-class business experience and technical expertise, including business strategists, knowledge management consultants, application development experts and best-in-class technologists. For additional information, see the company's Web site at www.rens.com.

About ArrowPoint

ArrowPoint Communications has pioneered Web switching, the next generation networking technology that optimizes Web response times and reliability for a consistently positive user experience. ArrowPoint's products are used in a broad range of applications, including electronic commerce, Web publishing, Web caching and value-added Web hosting services. The company is headquartered in Westford, Mass., with offices in the United Kingdom and Singapore. For more information, call 978.692.5875 or visit the company Web site at www.arrowpoint.com.