Some well rounded info from an older article:
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Net Engines revs up
'Net access gear
By DENI CONNOR
Network World, 01/31/00
Network Engines' new Web appliances promise to make
it easier for IT professionals to manage and control
Internet traffic and e-commerce activities.
The company last week announced the release of the
WebEngine Roadster, Viper, CommerceEngine and
AdminEngine, Internet devices that speed and
authenticate access to Internet activities. The boxes are
aimed at midsize to large companies running Windows
NT or Linux server-based networks.
Network Engines is looking to further tap into the
appliance server market, which will exceed $7.9 billion
by 2003, according to International Data Corp. in
Framingham, Mass. Appliance servers are
single-function turnkey devices that are easy to install and
configure. Other functions that are ideal for appliance
servers include file storage, data serving, security and
messaging.
The WebEngine Roadsters are available as entry-level
appliances for Microsoft Internet Information Server
(IIS) or Linux Apache-based Web servers. Each box is
designed for midsize companies running their own
Web-hosting services. The devices ship with Web
publishing, e-mail, file transfer services and Microsoft
FrontPage server extensions for Web site development.
The Roadster Web appliances are based on Intel
330-MHz to 500-MHz Celeron processors with 64M to
512M bytes of memory, dual 10/100 Ethernet adapters
and up to 36G bytes of internal 10,000-rpm storage.
The company also introduced new hardware and
software capability for its Viper LX and NT high-end
Web servers. Viper Web servers operate in Windows
NT and Linux environments and feature single or dual
500-MHz to 700-MHz Intel Pentium III processors with
128M to 2G bytes of RAM. They run Apache or IIS
Web server software.
Each Viper Web server is rack-mounted and can be
clustered in up to 255-node configurations. All
WebEngine appliances are rack-mountable, and up to
23 devices will fit in a standard rack.
"We use 23 WebEngines for Linux in a standard rack to
capture newsfeeds and as Web servers because they are
low-profile," says Joe Choti, chief technology officer for
Screaming Media in New York. "We are hosted at a
co-location cage at Global Frontier, where price is a
premium for space. We would need to double or triple
our cage size to put in that many other units." Network
Engine's WebEngine Roadster and Viper appliances are
1.75 inches high.
Further, Network Engines unveiled the
CommerceEngine, a 600-MHz Pentium III-based server
that encrypts and decrypts Secure Sockets Layer
transactions. The CommerceEngine is commonly used in
configurations with the Viper LX or NT in environments
where a high level of processing is required.
Finally, the AdminEngine is a device for managing
clusters of up to 256 Roadster, Viper or
CommercEngine appliances.
The Roadster LX is $2,000; the Roadster NT is $2,700.
The devices will ship this quarter. The Viper appliance is
$3,000 for Linux and $4,000 for Windows NT. The
CommerceEngine, scheduled to ship in the second
quarter, starts at $10,000. The AdminEngine starts at
$5,000 and includes five appliance licenses. |
