re: Accelerator Wars. Battle Lines being drawn. Two Articles.
2 of 2
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Internet Companies Join Open Forum to Create Standards-Based Protocol for
Delivery of e-Services
Business Wire - December 14, 1999 12:55
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 14, 1999--
ICAP to be Recommended to IETF for Delivering Value Added
Services for Enterprises, Content Providers and ISPs
A forum of leading Internet-focused companies today announced a major initiative aimed at delivering value added services that leverage the Internet's infrastructure, increasing the intelligence and flexibility of networks. The goal of the forum is the cooperative review and consideration of ideas and concepts to create an open standards-based protocol - Internet Content Adaptation Protocol
(ICAP) - which is expected to be presented to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) early in 2000. The proposed standard will allow enterprises, content providers and ISPs to seamlessly conduct e-services such as targeted Web advertising, virus scanning, content filtering, data compression and language translation on any Internet access device.
The ICAP Forum is hosted by Akamai Technologies and Network Appliance, and is joined by leading Internet companies including content delivery service providers, application and content developers, and Internet infrastructure companies. Forum members who have endorsed the drafting of the open protocol include: Allaire Corporation, Appliant, Inc., BroadVision, Cobalt Networks, Direct Hit, DoubleClick, eBuilt, eColor, Engage, Entera, Exodus, Finjan Software, Frictionless Commerce, Globix, Google, Inc., Idiom, Inc., InfoLibria, Ingeniux, iWeb.com, Inc., Lionbridge Technologies, Network Associates, Novell, N2H2, Open Market, Optibase, Oracle Corp., Pandesic, Predictive Networks, Rulespace, Secure Computing, SightPath, Trend Micro, Inc., Vignette Corporation, Websense, and WWWhoosh.
Additional partners are welcome and can join by sending email to partners@i-cap.org.
The development of ICAP is only an example of the specific work under way by participants in the forum, with an objective to have a draft for review (prior to submitting to the IETF) at the group's first meeting on February 14 in San Francisco.
Central to the ICAP concept to be discussed by the forum is a simple, yet powerful, open protocol that enables communication between edge content devices (i.e. Web caches and Internet content delivery servers), and application servers that modify content and then deliver it to Internet access devices. For example, when a Web cache receives a request from a cell phone browser, the cache will deliver the requested content to an application server that adapts the content for display on the cell phone. The cache serves the page, and caches it for subsequent cell phone browsers. This allows a very high degree of flexibility on the types of services that can be offered at access points while maintaining the high performance and integrity of the access servers.
Reinforcing the market's direction, and the need for the development of an open protocol that will enable the delivery of value added services that leverage the Internet's infrastructure, a September 1999 Forrester Report entitled Networked Services Platforms, outlines "successful carriers will leave the application services to ASPs and SIs. To create value, carriers will build a networked services platform (NSP) that provides a foundation for others to offer app services. By 2003, users will drive the adoption of the NSP by rejecting closed joint ventures."
The companies endorsing ICAP are expected to finalize the value added services protocol and submit it to the IETF's Web Replication and Caching working group in mid-February for draft Request for Comment (RFC) consideration. Interested parties are encouraged to provide their feedback by contacting partners@i-cap.org. More information on this initiative is available at www.i-cap.org. The first value added services solutions are expected to reach the marketplace in Q1 2000.
ICAP Forum Partner Quotes
"To date, companies engaged in the creation of value-added services have had little success due to the existence of closed schemas and
proprietary APIs that prevent the interoperation of third party hardware platforms. By implementing this simple and elegant protocol,
application partners, caching vendors and content delivery players will create an open platform for value-added services," said Danny
Lewin, chief technology officer at Akamai Technologies.
"We've seen demand from our customers for an open standard of integrating enterprise web applications with a new generation of
Internet content delivery technologies," said Jeremy Allaire, chief technology officer of Allaire Corporation. "With the ICAP initiative,
our customers will use the Allaire e-business platform to build large scale solutions while leveraging the latest web caching
technologies."
"As an end-to-end provider of performance management services for eBusiness, Appliant supports the creation of a protocol that will
improve the interoperability between proxy servers and other network devices," said Jamie Lomas, director, Product Marketing, Appliant,
Inc.
"BroadVision has supported the idea of delivering personalized content to users through multiple entry points for some time and we are
excited to be a part of the ICAP initiative," said Dr. Eric Golin, chief technology officer at BroadVision. "ICAP will improve access to
e-services and enable our customers to better serve personalized data to both traditional and non traditional Internet users."
"The industry is moving toward vending applications on the Internet, accessed from a variety of devices. Application developers,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and system integrators need reliable and affordable platforms to deliver sophisticated business-critical
applications," said Mark Orr, vice president, business development and co-founder, Cobalt Networks, Inc. "ICAP will provide the
standards-based, open solution that will allow Internet Infrastructure companies to deliver powerful Internet applications to the end user
- quickly, simply, and affordably."
"We see the development of ICAP as significant to Com Net because of the protocol's potential to create new revenue sources through a
whole new series of value-added services that take advantage of edge content delivery devices. The creation of ICAP would ultimately
help us expand our total package of services," said Randall Plaisier, CTO, Com Net, Inc., providers of bright.net Internet Access, Ohio's
Leading Internet Provider.
"Direct Hit is excited to be participating in the ICAP program," said David Parker, vice president of Business Development, Direct Hit.
"By offering its award winning, popularity-based search results through ICAP, Direct Hit expects to increase its speed and ease of
delivery of its content to the company's many high-traffic partners. At the same time, through ICAP Direct Hit will be able to offer its
search results seamlessly to a whole new class of cutting edge Internet companies."
"The ICAP initiative promises to improve the Internet infrastructure, further removing technical barriers that impede the development and
realization of innovative ideas. As an e-business enabler, eBuilt designs and builds solutions that employ Internet technologies to
deliver business value. An ICAP enriched Internet infrastructure provides a higher jumping-off-point for tomorrow's differentiators," said
Joe Lindsay, CTO of eBuilt, Inc.
"The ICAP standard will help enable E-Color to maintain image quality and control for a variety of platforms using our True Internet
Color technology," said Peter Bernard, vice president of Products and Marketing. "E-Color has a long history of promoting open
standards in color management and we're excited about being involved in this new effort."
"We're pleased to work with the wide range of technology leaders who have come together to develop open, standard protocols for
application servers, such as Engage AdManager, to communicate with caches and content delivery servers at the edge of the network,"
said Dan Jaye, CTO for Engage. "ICAP has the potential to greatly simplify the deployment and management of enterprise-wide web
applications for our customers. Through ICAP, our applications such as advertising insertion and usage reporting and analysis will be
able to work with the caching infrastructure rather than trying to defeat it with 'cache-busting' techniques."
"This initiative supports Entera's goal of enabling our partners to create solutions that build the Internet," said John Scharber, CTO of
Entera. "Entera is encouraged by this effort since we believe standards-based, multi-platform support is critical to enable widespread,
efficient content delivery to the mass market."
"Security issues don't end with PCs and servers," said Ron Moritz, CTO of Finjan Software, developer of first-strike security products
that combat malicious code. "In the near future, people and organizations will require proactive malicious code security for a variety of
devices and at multiple points. The CCI API and the ICAP protocol will allow us to achieve this."
"Frictionless Commerce is committed to bringing increased value to online shopping," said Robert Guttman, CTO, Frictionless Commerce
Incorporated. "To do this, we actively support the ICAP effort to develop industry standards and to begin to bring the power of the
Internet to multiple access devices. Creating standards and expanding access to online shopping is a critical part of continuing to
enhance e-commerce. We strongly believe in the ability of the Internet to bring highly targeted Web content to consumers and are
dedicated to working with ICAP to create open standards."
"As the fastest growing search destination site in the web, Google is focused on providing the best experience for finding information
with the highest levels of speed and relevance," said Larry Page, Google CEO and president. "The ICAP initiative will enable us to
seamlessly integrate our award-winning technology with other existing network services to further enhance search and navigation on the
web for both content providers and Internet users."
"ICAP has the potential to enable global distribution of content delivery and application services. As client and server implementations
of ICAP become more widespread, it will enable device independence, global performance and local personalization on the Web. These
advances will broaden both the scale and quality of access to the Web as its user base continues to expand. Companies will be able to
provide their customers and prospects with a consistent Web experience -- regardless of where they are in the world," says Ken Shan,
chief technology officer at Idiom, Inc.
"InfoLibria is dedicated to bringing rich Web content closer to the customer. ICAP will enhance our ability to distribute and mange
content globally in cooperation with content services providers," said Shyam Jha, vice president of marketing at InfoLibria.
"Ingeniux is committed to extending the power of the Internet through ingenuity. We are interested to bring value to ICAP, an
organization we see as dedicated to streamline efficiencies of information across the Internet, to remove barriers for emerging ideas and
to provide the leverage of ingenuity from all resources combined. This would push the Internet to the next level. This type of initiative is
one that benefits and is welcomed by all web users," said T. Cameron Jones, vice president, Corporate Marketing & Development,
Ingeniux, Inc.
"Just as HTTP and HTML standards enabled many developers to create services for the Internet, ICAP's standards-based approach will
enable us to rapidly integrate network intelligence into our Web-advertising services," said Kobi Samboursky, president, iWeb.com, Inc.
"As the percentage of non-English speaking Internet users increases, businesses must be able to communicate with their customers in
local languages and cultural formats," said Rory Cowan, CEO of Lionbridge Technologies. "The open platform of the ICAP protocol
enables ebusinesses to deliver local language content through any Internet access device, in any location, to any user - that's a big step
toward the true globalization of the Internet."
"The value added services initiative is a major step forward in the emerging caching and content delivery space. By providing this open
approach to enhance network services, ISPs and enterprises will be able to deploy scalable, reliable, open and extensible architectures,"
said James Lau, co-founder and CTO of Network Appliance.
"Network Associates recognizes the growing need for easy to implement and manage security appliances, such as our WebShield
E-ppliance family of anti-virus, firewall and VPN plug-and-play hardware devices," said Gene Hodges, vice president of McAfee Total
Virus Defense at Network Associates. "The ICAP standard will offer customers and service providers another way to easily ensure the
security of e-business networks."
"With the explosion of Web-based media and proliferation of customized Internet access devices, users are consuming Internet content
in increasingly personalized ways," said Drew Major, chief scientist and vice president, Novell Inc. "By actively participating in the ICAP
initiative, Novell and our partners will address this trend and accelerate the adoption of a whole new class of in-the-flow value-added
Internet services such as Web content transformation, multimedia streaming and advertisement injection."
"N2H2 is excited about leveraging our extensive proxy network with a variety of valuable new services," said Kevin Fink, co-founder and
CTO of N2H2, Inc. "ICAP will facilitate integration of N2H2 content filtering with ICAP-compliant hardware platforms and services, to
provide superior solutions for all our customers."
"We're in the business of helping companies access and sell products electronically," explained BC Krishna, chief technology officer at
Open Market. "Supporting open standards is an important part of what we do. Our IPS content and Transact commerce software
packages are open and scalable and provide our customers with an easy to use, integrated e-business solution. We're actively involved
in ICAP because it extends the personalization and e-services we already offer across the content and commerce arenas. We believe the
industry's adoption of ICAP will allow our enterprise and ASP customers and their customers to more effectively take advantage of
personalization capabilities, including targeted Web advertising and other e-marketing tools."
"We're excited by the opportunity to join forces with other industry leaders in delivering a solution that will enhance the distribution of
rich media streaming applications across the broadband Internet. Through ICAP, our technologies and solutions will enable end-to-end,
constraint free streaming of rich media over the Internet," said Yehuda Elmaliach, chief technology officer of Optibase. "Optibase is
committed to contribute its expertise in the field of video and media streaming over networks to the success of the ICAP Forum
initiative."
"We are pleased to be part of this consortium, a first of its kind joint effort by all the key players in the caching space," said Thomas
Kurian, Oracle vice president of e-Business. "Oracle expertise in this space coupled with support for open systems makes this effort
compelling. This will enhance the performance and scalability of the Internet and content-rich web sites."
"As the leading e-commerce ASP, Pandesic is continually working with our merchants to improve the consumer shopping experience,"
said Patrick Holmes, Chief Technologist at Pandesic, LLC, the engine driving over 100 e-businesses. "This consistent approach to
implementing value-added services will enable more quality services and faster adoption of those services."
"We are excited to be part of the movement for open standards-based protocols," said Devin Hosea, CEO of Predictive Networks. "Our
alignment with ISPs of all types means that our individually targeted and fully addressable content delivery universe will expand as these
protocols are implemented."
"RuleSpace and its ICAP partners understand that a manageable, scalable Internet is only possible if intelligence is built directly into the
network infrastructure. Having an awareness of what content is passing through the network is critical to achieving this goal," stated
Charlie Kawasaki, president and CEO, RuleSpace, Inc. "The ICAP initiative enables RuleSpace categorization services to tightly integrate
with other network elements and deliver a better online experience."
"Secure Computing is in the business of providing safe, secure extranets for e-businesses," said Tom Haigh, CTO of Secure Computing.
"Fast, scalable e-commerce security can be built on ICAP-based vectoring to devices that securely filter and enhance content."
"Content is King on the web and adaptive content will enable a rich variety of web-based services on content routing networks.
SightPath's intelligent content delivery products let enterprises and service providers bring value-added content delivery and routing
services to their audience," said Jim O'Toole, chief technology officer at SightPath. "ICAP will improve those content routing networks
and simplify interoperability with delivery devices of the new millennium."
"Trend Micro is pleased to endorse the ICAP standard as it will enable ISPs to build virus protection into the infrastructure of the
Internet," said Allan Thompson, vice president of Strategic Alliances for Trend Micro Inc. "ISP customers, and the Internet community
as a whole benefit from ISPs providing seamlessly integrated virus scanning as a value-added service. By stopping viruses up at the ISP
servers, damaging computer viruses can be stopped before they have a chance to reach desktops or other Internet devices, where they
can execute, infect, and spread."
"Vignette is focused on automating the customer's side of e-business interactions by removing all the anxiety and work associated with
being an online customer," said Bill Daniel, Vignette's senior vice president of products. "The ICAP standard supports this principle by
shortening the distance between e-businesses and their customers."
"WWWhoosh! is one example of internet acceleration technology that can be deployed using ICAP," said Clinton Battersby, president
of WWWhoosh, Inc. "The ICAP initiative facilitates rapid integration of emerging technology and provides a modular approach for
building high performance content delivery networks."
The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute
forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual
results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including,
but not limited to, the dependence on Akamai's Internet content delivery service, a failure of its network infrastructure, the complexity of
its service and the networks on which the service is deployed, the failure to obtain access to transmission capacity, the failure of
eBusinesses to use the application services, the risk that the IETF will not standardize ICAP, and other factors that are discussed in the
Company's Registration Statement on Form S-1 and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.
CONTACT: Akamai Technologies
Jeff Young, 617/250-3913
jyoung@akamai.com
or
Network Appliance
Adam Trunkey, 408/822-6314
atrunkey@netapp.com |
