F5 Labs and PSIWeb Team To Provide Industry's Only 100% Uptime Guarantee.SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 24, 1997-- PSIWeb Applies BIG/ip2 Technology To Balance the Load for Business-critical Web Hosting Services A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own websites accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing F5 Labs, provider of innovative server controller technology, today announced that PSIWeb Inc., a subsidiary of PSINet Inc., has chosen the F5 BIG/ip2 to provide 100% guaranteed server uptime for its rapidly-growing PSIWeb Shared Hosting Services. With more than 23,000 corporate customers in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and abroad, PSINet is one of the largest and most experienced Internet service providers Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. in the world. Their services include on-demand and dedicated Internet connectivity, remote access for mobile workers, corporate intranet and security services Security services are state institutions for the provision of intelligence, primarily of a strategic nature, but also including protective security intelligence. Examples include the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in the United Kingdom, and the , and PSIWeb's shared and dedicated Web site hosting. In addition to core connectivity, PSINet offers a variety of value-added business application services See ASP and Web services. such as Internet faxing Using the Internet to send faxes. Fax servers accept an incoming fax message and route it to a fax server in the same locality as the destination fax machine. The fax server then makes a local telephone call to send the fax. (PSINet InternetPaper) and electronic commerce (PSIWeb WorldPay, PSIWeb eCommerce). Delivered over the industry's most comprehensive switched Frame Relay A high-speed packet switching protocol used in wide area networks (WANs). Providing a granular service of up to DS3 speed (45 Mbps), it has become popular for LAN to LAN connections across remote distances, and services are offered by most major carriers. network, with 24-hour network monitoring The term network monitoring describes the use of a system that constantly monitors a computer network for slow or failing systems and that notifies the network administrator in case of outages via email, pager or other alarms. , PSINet is also known for outstanding customer support. PSIWeb selected F5 Labs' BIG/ip2 technology to maintain continuous 24 hour-a-day, seven day-a-week availability and at the same time balance server loading to reduce unnecessary hardware expense for their web hosting service. While one BIG/ip2 is currently installed, PSIWeb currently plans to install six BIG/ip2 units to accommodate the dynamic growth in their web hosting Making a Web site available on the Internet. Many ISPs host a few personal Web pages for an individual at no additional cost above the monthly service fee, but the address is subordinate to the ISP; for example, www.friendlyisp.com/pat_smith. business. BIG/ip2 is a dedicated Server Array Controller that intelligently allocates Internet and Intranet service requests across a group of inexpensive, network servers. Residing between the Internet routers and an array of servers, BIG/ip2 continually monitors each server for application availability and performance. On the front end, it oversees all incoming web queries and automatically directs each service request to the most appropriate and available server for subsequent processing. By balancing all of the incoming web requests across the content servers, the product substantially reduces the number of server failures due to overload conditions. By detecting application, server and network failures in advance and routing service requests accordingly, the product essentially guarantees fail-safe, timely responses to user queries. Moreover, BIG/ip2 stands alone due to the fact that the product itself has complete, built-in redundancy. Consequently, there is no single point of failure along the entire path, from backbone to server. Before implementing the BIG/ip2, to ensure accessibility and avoid the possibility of a single point of failure, PSINet replicated each customer's web site on two servers, nominally located on the east and west coast. Server access was allocated by round-robin DNS (Domain Name System) A system for converting host names and domain names into IP addresses on the Internet or on local networks that use the TCP/IP protocol. For example, when a Web site address is given to the DNS either by typing a URL in a browser or behind the , in which each request was randomly routed to the two servers. To ensure fast server response, PSIWeb limited each server pair to 200 customers. When additional customers signed up for hosting services, PSIWeb would roll out an additional pair of servers. While providing reliable load distribution, PSIWeb engineers were moving to provide even greater reliability and performance for their Web Services (1) Loosely, any online service delivered over the Web. Such usage appears in articles from non-technical sources, but not in IT-oriented publications, because definition #2 below describes the correct use of the term. customers. "PSIWeb serves business customers who are relying on the Internet more and more for corporate processes," clarified Ed Frankenberg, Director of Web Products for PSINet. "To maintain our reputation as the industry innovator, we needed to find ways to deliver a more reliable and better performing system. With the dynamic growth we are enjoying in our web hosting service, we also need a completely scalable solution." PSIWeb needed a distributed server architecture that would make all of the connected servers act as one large server. PSIWeb realized that the new architecture would allow PSIWeb to confidently offer a 100% uptime guaranteed. After a thirty to sixty day evaluation period Evaluation period The time interval over which funds assess a money manager's performance. in which PSIWeb studied all the available solutions, they selected the BIG/ip2 solution from F5 Labs. "We demanded a completely fault tolerant The ability to continue non-stop when a hardware failure occurs. A fault-tolerant system is designed from the ground up for reliability by building multiples of all critical components, such as CPUs, memories, disks and power supplies into the same computer. system. We also wanted a combined hardware/software solution," explained Frankenberg. "While we looked at software solutions, we found they were pricey Pricey Term used for an unrealistically low bid price or unrealistically high offer price. pricey Of, relating to, or being an unrealistically high offer. An offer to sell a security at $50 when the current market price is $47 is pricey. , and when combined with the new hardware they required were actually more expensive than the BIG/ip2." Frankenberg also wanted a Unix-based system, not one that relied on a proprietary operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. . "If something goes wrong at 3:00 A.M., or you simply need to make a change in your system, you want to know exactly how the entire system behaves and why." PSIWeb engineers installed the first BIG/ip2 themselves, though they had representatives from F5 on hand for assistance. "After thirty to sixty days of studying F5 and the rest of the field, we had a good understanding of how to deploy and install the system. "The system went in without a hitch. The BIG/ip2 does exactly what F5 says it is going to do, and just the way they say." While PSIWeb currently has multiple UltraSPARCs connected to the BIG/ip2 and they can easily increase this number to transparently add capacity. "Whether we have three, four, five or twenty servers connected to BIG/ip2, it looks like one seamless server to the outside world. When traffic increases we can add more servers to the BIG/ip2, and when the BIG/ip2 gets to its capacity, we can just deploy more BIG/ip2 boxes. "BIG/ip2 saves money on customer support, increases the capacity of our servers, and lets us guarantee 100% shared web server availability," says Frankenberg. "It's a great product." The PSINet web page summarizes it well. "The history of the Internet cannot be fully told without reference to PSINet and its contributions to the industry and the technology. Yet as important as our heritage is to our identity, what is more important is the direction in which we are heading." About PSINet PSINet is a leading provider of turn-key corporate Internet and intranet access, managed security services, electronic commerce solutions and Web hosting services throughout the United States and abroad. PSINet manages one of the world's largest and most advanced fast-packet networks, which provides state-of-the-art, high speed Internet access See how to access the Internet. ranging from dedicated high-speed circuits to ISDN ISDN in full Integrated Services Digital Network Digital telecommunications network that operates over standard copper telephone wires or other media. to high-speed modem dial-up. PSINet backs up its state-of-the-art network with the industry's original service guarantee, employing automatic back-up systems and crediting for service outages. Headquartered in Herndon, Va., PSINet has offices throughout the U.S. and subsidiaries in Canada, Japan and Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. For more information contact PSINet by phone at 703/904-4100, by e-mail at info@psi.com or by accessing the corporate web site at http://www.psi.net. F5 Labs Inc. is a privately held company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. that develops and markets server array controller technologies enabling organizations to provide reliable, consistent access to their mission critical Internet and Intranet applications through the fail-safe use of scalable content servers. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Wash., and is located on the web at www.f5.com. BIG/IP and BIG/ip2 are trademarks of F5 Labs, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Note: The "2" that appears in the product name "BIG/ip2" should be superscripted. CONTACT: F5 Labs Kristina O'Connell, 206/447-1817 k.oconnell@f5.com or S&S Public Relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most Melissa Rabin, 800/287-2279 melissa@sspr.com |
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