Crossroads 2002 A-List Award Winners

FineGround Networks, Inc.
Campbell, CA

FineGround Condenser
> Content Acceleration

CUSTOMERS AT WORK

Companies struggle to manage the tradeoffs between Web site operation costs and the end-user experience. Popular demand for dynamic, personalized content and transactions has only increased the complexity of this task. FineGround Networks’ clients are seeking to cost-effectively accelerate delivery to the end user. A number of online business services were among the reference customers. Common strategic objectives included:

§ Improving the end-user’s experience

§ Reducing bandwidth costs

§ Minimizing alterations to the existing site

WHY FINEGROUND?

Companies rely on FineGround Networks to accelerate the overall Web experience. FineGround Condenser filters downloads and eliminates redundancies for both static and dynamic content. Deploying FineGround Condenser requires no changes to Web servers, content, or end-user browsers. FineGround Condenser is a software application that can run on Linux or Solaris Web servers. The FineGround Condenser can monitor performance from a Web-based administration console.

BUSINESS IMPACT

Near-term value: Companies report that the FineGround Condenser has had an immediate impact on their site performance. In some cases, users are receiving Web downloads nearly six times faster than before.

Enterprise innovation: FineGround Networks’ early clients are robust online businesses constantly looking to extend the reach and performance of existing infrastructure. The FineGround Condenser has enabled them to decrease costs by dramatically reducing bandwidth expenditures. Two companies reported cutting bandwidth costs by 90 percent. This enables the companies to support more clients on the same foundation while simultaneously improving the quality of service.

Technology gains: Prior to using FineGround, client organizations experimented with a variety of caching services and solutions. However, these approaches could not address dynamic content and could not accelerate the “last mile” for dial-up users. The FineGround Condenser applies a range of optimization techniques that accelerate the overall user experience. As the user logs successive requests to a site for new pages or new information on an existing page, the FineGround Condenser will parse requests and send only the elements that have changed since the user’s last request.

SUCCESS FACTORS

Project strategy: Companies incorporate the FineGround Condenser into their overall Web architecture. In some instances, consequent infrastructure changes may interfere with web logging processes. Reference customers reported that they resolved any problems early in their implementations.

Learning: As is often the case with new production equipment in any industrial-strength environment, the launch process requires both training and testing.

Resources: The FineGround Condenser runs on Linux and Solaris operating systems. Although reference customers reported few if any reliability issues, Microsoft purists that give FineGround a try should allow themselves some time to gain familiarity with a new environment.

Fit: Internet-minded businesses, especially those building Web applications with personalization and/or complex transactions, should consider FineGround as a potential component in their overall Web strategy.

COMPANY INFO

FineGround Networks, Inc. is a private company with 35 employees.

498.376.0570
www.fineground.com
Published: January 2002