re: Accelerator Wars. Battle Lines being drawn. Two Articles.
1 of 2
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SUN MICROSYSTEMS: Digital Island allies
with Sun and Inktomi to expand e-business
content delivery network
Presswire - December 09, 1999 13:33
M2 PRESSWIRE-9 December 1999-SUN MICROSYSTEMS: Digital
Island allies with Sun and Inktomi to expand global electronic business
content delivery network (C)1994-99 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD
* Digital Island to Invest up to $150 Million to Deploy 5,000 Sun Servers
Running the Inktomi Traffic Server Cache Platform Sun and Inktomi to
Make Investments in Digital Island
SAN FRANCISCO -- Digital Island, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc., and
Inktomi Corp. announced today an agreement intended to greatly accelerate
Web-site performance for consumers and e-Business Web sites. Under the
agreement, Digital Island will deploy up to 5,000 Sun servers equipped
with Inktomi's Traffic Server and Content Delivery Suite - transforming the
Internet into a fast, reliable and rich infrastructure capable of supporting the
demands of interactive e-Business.
The build-out is expected to be among the largest deployments of
carrier-grade servers at the outer edges of the Internet. Digital Island
expects to invest up to $150 million to extend the reach and expand the
capacity of its existing e-Business Content Delivery Network, which
currently consists of regionally located data centers, over 1,200 Sun- and
Inktomi-based content distribution sites, and an intelligent network spanning
21 countries--all designed to provide a superior interactive end-user
experience anywhere in the world.
Under the agreement, Sun will also make, as part of its new Sun Equity
Investment Portfolio, a minority equity investment in Digital Island. Inktomi
will also make an additional investment in Digital Island, adding to the
stake it already holds in Sandpiper Networks, which announced a merger
agreement with Digital Island in October 1999. The Sun investment is
subject to customary governmental approvals.
Over the next three years, the companies will add up to 5,000 of Sun's Netra
t1 carrier-grade servers and Enterprise 420R servers running the Solaris
Operating Environment. The servers will be running the Inktomi Traffic
Server network cache platform and Content Delivery Suite. These products
will be incorporated into Digital Island's existing network of 1,200
carrier-grade servers running Sandpiper's Footprint algorithm, which
transparently directs end users to the best performing site on the network.
Approximately 350 metropolitan areas are expected to be targeted for the
deployment of the carrier-grade Sun servers over the next three years, 250
of which are expected to be outside the United States. Digital Island, Sun
and Inktomi will target network service providers (NSPs) worldwide for
co-location of the new servers through joint marketing and channel
programs. These servers will support interactive services over a variety of
access methods including DSL, cable, wireless and dialup. The benefits to
NSPs of co-locating the servers include:
Reduced network backbone and peering costs by keeping content on their
network.
Increased attraction and retention of new subscribers through faster and
more reliable end-user experience. In part, the performance gains are
realized through the elimination of network bottlenecks and closer
proximity of content to the end users.
Increased revenue generation through participation in Digital Island's
innovative revenue sharing and resale programs. Additional revenues
through building value-added content delivery services such as rich
streaming media, ad insertion, mobile device support, secure e-Business
transactions and dynamic content, by leveraging the open Application
Programming Interface (API) and related software development tools for
managing applications distributed on the e-Business Content Delivery
Network.
"The innovative network services that our alliance brings to the Internet
allows corporations to rapidly deliver content and conduct secure
transactions in order to excel at all facets of e-Business," said Ruann F.
Ernst, president and CEO of Digital Island. "The network of the future is
here."
"Digital Island is a great example of Sun's vision for distributed
computing," said Ed Zander, president and COO of Sun Microsystems. "The
combination of Digital Island's world-class network with Sun's
carrier-grade servers and software create a formidable platform for
deploying e-Business services--a platform that is reliable, with the
flexibility to handle all data types, and performance to match the
brick-and-mortar world, if not surpass it, for conducting transactions."
"Inktomi's expanded strategic agreement with Digital Island represents an
important advance in our mission to scale the Internet, and further
establishes Traffic Server as the de facto network cache standard," said
David Peterschmidt, president and CEO of Inktomi. "The combination of
Sun's powerful servers, Digital Island's sophisticated global network, and
Inktomi's infrastructure software creates an incredible platform to help
businesses aggressively leverage the Internet."
COMPANY INFORMATION
Digital Island (NASDAQ: ISLD) is a leading provider of network services
for globalizing e-Business applications. Digital Island serves companies
that need to securely and consistently extend business-critical applications
for marketing, selling, supporting, or distributing products via the Internet.
Digital Island's e-Network Services include global content distribution and
hosting services, localization of the end user online experience and a
reliable global Intelligent Network, all of which are designed to deliver the
right content, to the right customer, in the right market, at the right time. The
Company has regional data centers in New York, Santa Clara, Honolulu,
London, and Hong Kong, connecting directly into 21 countries with Local
Content Managers in 13 markets worldwide to provide the ubiquity and
reach of the public Internet with the quality and functionality normally
available only in a corporate wide-area network. www.digitalisland.net
Based in Foster City, Calif., Inktomi (pronounced INK tuh me) (NASDAQ:
INKT) develops and markets scalable software designed for the world's
largest Internet infrastructure and media companies. Inktomi's portal
services include the search, directory, and shopping engine applications;
network products include the Traffic Server network cache platform,
Content Delivery Suite, and associated value-added service applications.
CNET, Excite@Home, Intel, Microsoft, RealNetworks, Sun Microsystems
and Yahoo! The company has offices in North America, Asia, and Europe.
www.inktomi.com
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision--"The Network Is The
Computer"--has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) to
its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software
and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to
".com" their businesses. With $12.4 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be
found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at
www.sun.com.
Important Notice
Digital Island is a registered trademark of Digital Island, Inc. All other
trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
This release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties. Important factors which could cause actual results to differ
materially from those in the forward-looking statements, include but are not
limited to: the Digital Island's short operating history which makes it
difficult to predict its future results of operations; the company's history of
operating losses and expected future losses which could impede its ability
to address the risks and difficulties encountered by companies in new and
rapidly evolving markets; the company's future operating results could
fluctuate which may cause volatility or a decline in the price of the
company's stock; the company may not be able to price its services above
the overall cost of bandwidth causing its financial results to suffer; and
other factors detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission including its recent filing on Form S-1.
Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Sun Netra, Sun Enterprise, Solaris,
HotJava and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and in other
countries. Press announcements and other information about Sun
Microsystems are available on the Internet via the World WideWeb using a
tool such as Netscape Navigator or Sun's HotJava browser. Type
sun.com at URL prompt. Copyright 1999 INKTOMI
CORPORATION. All Rights Reserved. Inktomi, Traffic Server, Scaling the
Internet and the tri-colored cube logo are all trademarks or registered
trademarks of Inktomi Corporation. All other company and product names
referenced herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective holders.
CONTACT: Irwin Greenstein Tel: +1 415 738 4162 e-mail:
irwin@digitalisland.net Julie Keslik Tel: +1 650 653 3074 e-mail:
jkeslik@inktomi.com Maria Villarino Tel: +1 650 786 3205 e-mail:
maria.villarino@sun.com
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