Speedera Partners with eTouch to Telescope 3,000 NASA Web Sites into a Single Portal for Fast, Easy Access
To Inspire the Next Generation of Explorers, Space Agency Rethinks Strategy for Speeding User Access By Housing Content at the “Edge of the Internet”
eTouch Systems Corp., and Speedera Networks, the emerging leader
in global content delivery services, announced today that they have
partnered to provide a comprehensive SpeedSuite edge delivery solution
for NASA as part of a program to consolidate all 3,000 of the space
agency’s Web sites and make them accessible through a single portal.
After the recent deployment of Speedera’s services, the NASA portal
experienced a three-fold improvement in performance. Web page download
times are now between 0.8 and 1.0 seconds and NASA has broken into the
top ten U.S. Government Web sites with the fastest average
performance, as ranked by the Keynote Government Internet Performance
Index (KG40).
The NASA Portal Project contract was awarded to eTouch, the prime
contractor, which is also providing the content management system.
eTouch partnered with Speedera to provide a broad suite of content
delivery network (CDN) services. Other eTouch partners included in the
project are Sprint Corp., which is providing Web site hosting
services, and Critical Mass, Inc., which is responsible for providing
the interface architecture and the NASA audience-tested user
interface.
As part of this project, eTouch is using Speedera’s SpeedSuite
solution to provide NASA a comprehensive suite of CDN services that
includes whole site delivery, streaming media, load balancing and
advanced site monitoring. Key to this solution is the SpeedSuite
Traffic Balancer service, which provides global load balancing between
two origin sites housed in two Sprint datacenters. It intelligently
routes client requests to the fastest available customer site,
shifting traffic from an overloaded or failed site to overcome network
congestion and site outages, thus maximizing performance and
availability.
Planned since last summer, the NASA portal project originated with
a mandate from NASA top officials to make the portal a key element in
inspiring the next generation of explorers.
The NASA portal project is one of many in the growing initiative
towards making government and its agencies more accessible to the
public. In NASA’s case, the public benefits through simpler, faster
and more reliable access to the vast breadth of information available
through NASA’s sites, which can amount to millions of documents. To
ensure that the public will always be able to access this content, the
contract requires 99.995% availability.
“Consolidating Web site delivery is more efficient using
Speedera’s global content delivery network, and provides an optimal
architecture to meet high traffic demands from planned and unplanned
events,” said Aniruddha Gadre, President of eTouch. “NASA needed a
complete and elegant solution that streamlines both content management
and content delivery.”
“Agencies like NASA have realized this comprehensive solution for
an integrated portal is needed for bringing order to the chaos of too
many Web sites,” said Ajit Gupta, CEO and president of Speedera
Networks. “Also, by housing frequently requested content on multiple
servers distributed worldwide, Speedera shortens the distance between
Internet users and the data they seek in order to improve performance
and reliability. By outsourcing the management of the site, the
Federal Government can stretch budget dollars in this lean economy
rather than spend money on building and maintaining an expensive Web
site infrastructure.”
“NASA is in the business of space exploration,” Gupta continued.
“Speedera is in the business of helping Internet explorers get to
their destination fast and reliably.”
Massive Scalability for Mars Exploration Rover Launch
The combined solution from eTouch, Speedera and the other partners
provides massive scalability to handle even the most extreme traffic
loads, such as those caused by launches, landings, and other major
events. One of the first major performance demonstrations will be the
launch of two Mars rovers expected to take place June 8 and June 25th.
If all goes as planned, the landings in early 2004 could possibly
become one of the biggest live streaming events in history.
Speedera’s CDN is one of the largest content delivery networks in
the world, with connectivity to over 1000 carrier backbones and with
points of presence in the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific
region. The company was recognized in 2002 as “Best CDN” and
“Up-and-Coming Streaming Company to Watch” by Streaming Magazine and
received the 2002 Codie Award for “Best Internet Facilitation Product
or Service” from the Software & Information Industry Association
(SIIA). Speedera has also been named to Forbes’ “Best of the Web” B2B
Directory.
About Speedera Networks
Speedera Networks, Inc. is a leading global provider of
award-winning Internet services for reducing costs and improving
enterprises’ Web presence through superior performance, quality,
availability, scalability and security. The company’s edge delivery
network is deployed in the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific
region, with connectivity to over 1000 carrier networks. Speedera’s
SpeedSuite services include a comprehensive set of next generation
streaming, content delivery, failover, global load balancing, security
and management services, all based on a common global traffic
management infrastructure and patented technology. The company’s
customers include leading companies such as American Eagle Outfitters,
DoubleClick, Macromedia, Microsoft, Network Associates, Sony Music
Entertainment, Univision, and Fox Broadcasting. The company’s
investors include Banc of America Securities LLC, Continuum Group Ltd,
Deutsche Bank AG, Hewlett-Packard Company, Oracle Corp., Industry
Ventures and Trinity Ventures, among others. Speedera Networks is
located at 4800 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, CA, USA
95054-1227. For more information about Speedera, please call
408/970-1500, visit http://www.speedera.com or email
info@speedera.com.
