Cisco Systems Opens Cisco IOS Web Cache Communication Protocol; Inktomi and Network Appliance First to License Protocol.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 1998--Demonstrating its leadership in caching technology and its ongoing commitment to opening protocols for industry-wide adoption, Cisco Systems today announced it will license its Cisco IOS(R) software Web Cache Communication Protocol (WCCP) specification to other cache vendors.

This will allow a broader range of customers to take advantage of the significant cost and time savings associated with transparently redirecting packets from a router to a cache device.

Cisco initially developed WCCP to enable Cisco IOS routers to transparently redirect packets to a Cisco Cache Engine. Inktomi and Network Appliance will be the first vendors to license the WCCP protocol, giving them the ability to offer transparent redirection of Web traffic to their caching systems.

"Our technology licensing relationship with Cisco further broadens the deployment options for Inktomi's Traffic Server cache platform across the Internet," said David Peterschmidt, president and chief executive officer of Inktomi. "WCCP compatibility enhances our value proposition across all segments of the network, from the backbone out to the smallest points of presence."

"Cisco's WCCP paves the way toward easier deployment of caching with Cisco's routers," said Amit Pandey, director, NetCache marketing, Network Appliance. "This is a simple and cost-effective solution, especially for our enterprise customers."

"We will continue to drive cache technology innovation and add value to the Cisco IOS infrastructure," said Cliff Meltzer, senior vice president and general manager, IOS Technology, Cisco Systems. "Opening WCCP gives the industry access to an open protocol for transparent redirection of packets from Cisco IOS routers to multiple vendor caching devices and helps our customers take advantage of the rapidly growing market for Internet caching."

WCCP and Cisco Cache Engine

As a leader in the caching market, Cisco created WCCP to allow Cisco Cache Engines to communicate with Cisco routers. The Cisco Cache Engine is the industry's first dedicated Internet appliance designed to scale the Internet infrastructure and eliminate repeat transmissions of redundant Web content, saving customers WAN bandwidth and improving network response time.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. News and information are available at http://www.cisco.com.

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