Load Balancing NewsBriefs: 12/17/99 - continued

RADWARE's LinkProof Provides Resiliency For Multi-Homed ISPs
RADWARE recently announced LinkProof, an outbound load-balancer specifically designed to address issues associated with multi-homed ISPs. Many service providers utilize more than one upstream path to the Internet for diversity and redundancy. LinkProof deals intelligently with multiple routes, calculating network proximity and end-to-end response time before sending packets along the best route to reach a destination server. LinkProof then keeps packets in each TCP session flowing along the same selected route.

According to RADWARE, a feature called "Smart NAT" allows the LinkProof to perform network address translation according to the selected upstream route. For example, if the LinkProof chooses upstream ISP_1 for outbound delivery, then the translated source address will belong to the NAT address pool used by ISP_1 for the inbound response. RADWARE plans to ship LinkProof in Q499, starting at $9,375.  
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Cisco's Content Networking Initiative Includes MultiNode Load Balancing
Cisco's new "Content Networking" e-business initiative bundles network classification mechanisms, intelligent network services, and policy management into Cisco IOSŪ software. Among the intelligent network services added to Cisco IOS release 12 is MultiNode Load Balancing (MNLB), a load-balancing solution that consists of software running on Cisco routers and switches, Cisco LocalDirector, and application server platforms.

MNLB Services Manager software makes balancing decisions on the Cisco LocalDirector. MNLB Forwarding Agents, located on any Cisco IOS router or switch, forward packets based on Services Manager instructions. MNLB Workload Agents run on application server platforms, delivering server and application health information to the Services Manager. A backup Services Manager ensures that sessions can be maintained during a Services Manager failure. Cisco designed this four-prong load balancing architecture to meet the needs of very large web sites with complex network connectivity.   
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HydraFire Combines Load Balancing and Firewall Features In A Single Platform
HydraWEB Technologies recently announced HydraFire, a new product that combines HydraWEB's load balancing technology with an application-layer firewall. HydraFire allows increased security to be deployed selectively in front of e-commerce servers, without requiring traffic to pass through a separate firewall. Traffic can be authenticated and redirected to the appropriate back-end server in a single step, using an application-level single-box approach to provide both services.

According to HydraWEB, HydraFire is the first of a series of products HydraWEB will be creating for Internet Service Providers, Application Service Providers and Internet Hosting Providers. HydraWEB expects this product series to address four areas they deem critical for this target market: security, form factor, management and intelligence. HydraFire will ship by the end of 1999, starting at $45,000 for a redundant pair.  
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