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Web Speed and Availability Cited as Top Criteria for Integrating New Web Switches

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

BUY.COM, a leading Internet eCommerce portal site, has implemented Alteon's Web switching products and technology within its data center operations to support its widely popular and growing online business. The new Web switches provide transparent traffic management services simultaneously at ultra high speeds, intercepting and redirecting Web traffic to multiple Inktomi Traffic Servers while load balancing HTTP and SSL traffic to the company's Web server farms.

Key Takeaways:

  • BUY.COM's choice of Alteon's Web switches was driven by the need for high availability and Web speed, with 99.9% uptime being critical for its online business.
  • The Web switches, currently in production in BUY.COM's West Coast data center, provide numerous traffic management services simultaneously at ultra high speeds, including load balancing, HTTP and SSL traffic management, and IP routing between different server subnets.
  • Alteon's Web switches are being used to provide high availability to BUY.COM's Web caches and front-end Web servers, with all switches load sharing simultaneously in an active/active redundant configuration.
  • The company is also using Alteon Web switches to support its BuyNow division, which provides eCommerce services such as shopping engines, product catalogs and online order fulfillment to companies seeking to outsource various eCommerce activities.
  • As BUY.COM adds additional data centers and disaster recovery sites around the world, global server load balancing will play a key role in ensuring high availability and optimizing server resources.
  • Alteon's Web switches will enable global server load balancing without the need for additional networking hardware, providing further cost savings and efficiency.

Statistics:

  • 99.9% uptime is critical for BUY.COM's online business.
  • The Web switches are capable of handling 1 Gbps of traffic with 100 ms of latency.
  • Alteon's Web switches support up to 16,000 connections/IP address.
  • The switches are deployed in an active/active redundant configuration to ensure high availability.
  • BUY.COM's data center operations are currently expanding to include additional data centers and disaster recovery sites around the world.

Sources:

  • "BUY.COM and Alteon Announce Major Partnership," PR Newswire, 8 September 1998.
  • Alteon WebSystems, "Alteon's Web Switches," http://www.alteon.com/products/web_switches.

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