Cut IT costs and improve productivity with Modern Internet access technology.

It is hard to believe that a mere decade ago, the majority of companies worldwide provided little or no Internet access to their employees. Indeed, the Internet itself was just emerging as a popular medium and few could have predicted that it would become so ubiquitous so quickly, both in personal and business affairs. Historically, enterprises have managed Internet access by means of proxy server software installed on general-purpose servers, and a large percentage of companies still do. This is unfortunate. Among other things, legacy proxy servers are not scalable, fast or reliable enough to cost effectively serve the massive increase in users, and the systems lack the functionality required to ensure that employees use the Internet in the most efficient way possible. Fortunately, scalable, multi-functioned Internet access technology has now matured and can dramatically enhance employee productivity, improve speed and reliability, cut administration and maintenance costs, and reduce the need for additional hardware and software.

Reliability, Scalability for More Cost-Effective IT

When companies began to roll out Internet access in the mid-90s, they had to rely on the access management technology available at the time. Typically, this consisted of proxy server software such as Netscape Proxy or Microsoft Proxy running on general-purpose Windows or Unix boxes. Administrators had to add separate applications piecemealed to enhance security, defend against viruses or filter or cache content. Integrating these applications was not easy and generally reduced the reliability of the system as a whole. But perhaps the most significant limitation of legacy proxy servers was their lack of scalability. The systems were designed to handle a limited number of users, and when the user base grew beyond that number, companies had to add more systems. If one box could handle X amount of traffic, and the traffic increased six times, the administrators would have to install six more boxes. They would then have to attend to all of the complicated issues surrounding integration with supplementary applications and company infrastructure.

When companies build out their Internet access systems in this way--i.e., by adding general-purpose servers with proxy server software--they increase hardware, software and administrative costs proportionally and have little power to improve the productivity of even the most competent and dedicated IT staff. Simply put, more boxes require more administrators. Beyond that, the more boxes administrators install, the more complex a company's IT infrastructure becomes, and this generally results in less reliability and more expense. In addition, as the original servers and software age, their reliability tends to decrease. A proxy server that requires constant fixing, rebooting, monitoring and management can swell IT costs. Since downtime increases as reliability decreases, this build-out strategy also negatively affects the productivity of personnel enterprise-wide. When the access system is down, employees can't use the Internet to conduct their business.

Fortunately, employers no longer need to rely on traditional proxy servers to accommodate the growth in Internet users. Appliance-based Internet access management systems now exist that are far more scalable and combine proxy server functionality with a wide range of other capabilities including content filtering, caching, security applications, and so on. Appliance-based solutions are typically more reliable, easier to manage, and have higher performance than general-purpose servers. More importantly, the enhanced scalability allows companies to consolidate the load of many servers onto just a few appliances. Hence, there are fewer systems to maintain, less that can go wrong, less need for maintenance and repair, and far less system downtime. The new systems significantly reduce the IT workload and increase the productivity of IT staff. This, in turn, reduces the need to add staff as the Internet user base grows. In addition, since a few appliances are much easier to manage than a large set of servers, appliance-based solutions enable companies with many facilities to manage Internet access from a central location. Thus, companies need not place proxy servers in remote locations, and need not hire IT staff to manage them.

Filtering and Caching for Enhanced Productivity

Modern Internet access technology can significantly improve employee productivity in several ways--it can reduce the time and bandwidth wasted on unproductive Web surfing, accelerate business-appropriate Internet activity, and free-up time for non-Internet related projects. Unproductive Web surfing has become a major business issue, especially with the proliferation of new and tempting content and services. IDC recently published a study with some startling statistics:

* 60% of on-the-job Web surfing is non-business related

* 72% of Web pornography is viewed at work

* 70% of online purchasing takes place at work

* Online buyers spend 3-4 hours researching a product before they buy

* Employees waste an average of twenty minutes when clicking on banner ads 

What can employers do? They can develop Internet-access policies based on clear criteria for what is acceptable and unacceptable, and they can then deploy robust modern technology to effectively enforce these policies.

Many employers find that the most effective Internet access policies tolerate a moderate amount of non-business related Web surfing. One reason for this is simply morale: happy workers need variety and breaks, and they may find the Internet far more interesting than conversation around the water cooler. Beyond that, employees have to run their everyday lives, which often requires performing personal tasks during business hours. Sometimes they can attend to personal matters far more quickly and efficiently by using the Internet than by leaving the office or even using the company telephone. If Mary needs to pay bills, transfer money between bank accounts or buy a birthday present, it may cost the company far less of her time if she uses the Web rather than drive to the post office, the bank or the department store.

Nevertheless, even "enlightened" companies will want to develop policies that prevent employees from wasting too much time on the Web, particularly when workers are only surfing for fun and when this activity consumes band-width and degrades legitimate, business-related Internet use. Most companies also want to prohibit employees from viewing Web content considered offensive--e.g., hate speech or pornography--especially when that material might offend a passing customer or co-worker. Offended customers and co-workers can sue under harassment or hostile environment laws, and they sometimes succeed in court. This can cost a company dearly, both in money and in reputation.

Even the best policies won't work if employers lack the means to enforce them. Although the capacities of traditional proxy servers are quite limited in this regard, technology vendors now offer new, scalable appliance-based Internet management systems that integrate a wide variety of functions, including those necessary for effective, flexible and comprehensive enforcement of access policies. Specifically, the new technology allows companies to monitor patterns of Internet usage, filter and evaluate content, and block access to unacceptable sites.

Content-filtering technology enables users to maintain and continuously update a database of millions of websites. Since the database is essentially a text file, it does not require a huge amount of disk space or memory, and can be compressed and optimized in a variety of ways. Administrators can divide the database into a manageable number of categories, and then use the categories to block access to particular sites. If a company only designates a few categories as off limits, the filtering system will restrict its check of website requests to those categories. This efficiency in the filtering process helps minimize the management system's impact on the speed of Internet activity.

Most companies will block access to pornographic or racist sites across the entire enterprise, and in sexual harassment suits, courts look favorably on the fact that companies have actually deployed technology to implement their policies. But the technology also allows employers to differentiate between groups, and enforce access policies based on membership. For example, a company might allow its marketing unit to access a far broader range of sites than its manufacturing group, because marketing needs to conduct extensive research on competitive products, consumer trends, etc. Employers can also tailor access privileges to specific individuals. Hence, if Joe has been wasting too much time surfing for pleasure, the company can place more stringent restrictions on his Internet access than on other members of his group.

Companies can combine content filtering with usage monitoring to further customize access policies. Usage monitoring provides analyses of surfing patterns relative to types of content and the groups or individuals requesting it. Administrators can track usage and the load across large deployments from a single console, enabling them to ensure that Internet policies are being enforced, charge back to departments, and estimate future infrastructure requirements. Beyond that, when employees are aware that Internet usage is being tracked, they become more careful about the time they spend and the sites they visit.

The results of usage monitoring can be quite informative. For example, Interval International, a full-service travel agency with 30 offices around the world, began monitoring overall load patterns, and then used the information to refine filtering practices and improve capacity planning. "We originally suspected that visits to sports sites were draining both bandwidth and productivity," said Sasan Hamidi, Interval's chief security officer. "But looking at our reports, we discovered that actual usage was not excessive. We opted to continue to allow access to those sites. The result? Our employees appreciate the perk, and it has contributed to a positive morale." On the other hand, the monitoring did reveal that audio and video streaming clogged the system and slowed performance, and the company blocked access to these services.

Content filtering and usage monitoring also improves worker productivity by reducing the strain on bandwidth. Since the technology cuts the time wasted on non-business-related Internet surfing, it helps clear the pipes for faster, more efficient business activity. But this is not the only way that new Internet access management systems enhance performance. Some of these systems also combine filtering with very effective caching technology that further accelerates Internet access and navigation.

Filtering technology would cause delays if every time employees within a large organization requested access to a popular and acceptable website, the system had to determine the acceptability for each request. Administrators can program caching technology to tag a URL so that once it is deemed acceptable, the filter does not search again the next time the website is requested. For example, if Jack requests Yahoo.com/Business, and the filter deems it acceptable, the filtering engine need not run another search when Jill requests the same website an hour later. Hence, the access management system reduces redundant traffic through Internet gateways, which helps cut Web access times. Caching also stores Web pages closer to the user, which accelerates access. Caching, therefore, boosts performance considerably, which pays off in productivity because employees can access and navigate the Internet faster.

A Solution for the Future

The Internet has overwhelmed our business practices in the blink of an eye, so it is no wonder IT managers are wary of replacing the enabling technology with something new in so short a time. But new Internet access management solutions can significantly enhance overall productivity and dramatically cut IT costs. Their scalability is a mark of maturity--they will accommodate future expansion and new applications, and so will not themselves need to be replaced in the foreseeable future. For example, as streaming video continues to proliferate, these appliance-based solutions for Internet access can deliver video throughout a distributed enterprise without the need for major bandwidth increases. In addition, as business applications such as CRM and ERP migrate to the Web, enterprises can ensure users get quick response time using the same appliance solutions.

The Bottom Line

The technology pays for itself in a very short term, as documented by IDC, whose research shows that an appliance-based solution for Internet access typically pays for itself in three months and results in savings over three years of 10 times the investment in the system.

www.netapp.com

Dave Kresse is director of marketing at Network Appliance, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA)