Bill also mentioned preloading HDD w/ certain information the computer needs to help surf the net faster. I believe this article is along this idea to speed up connectivity.
Monday November 17, 9:01 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: CacheFlow, Inc.
CacheFlow Delivers Network Infrastructure Technology Which
Dramatically Improves Web Speed for End Users
Company Launch Marks New Era for Businesses Leveraging the Web As a Mission-Critical
Network
PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- CacheFlow Inc. has entered the networking market specifically to deliver
innovative products that dramatically improve Web response time for end users. The new company is led by entrepreneur
Michael Malcolm, co-founder of Network Appliance, and an all-star team of industry veterans from Digital Equipment
Corporation [NYSE:DEC - news], Emulex Corporation [Nasdaq:EMLX - news], Oracle Corporation [Nasdaq:ORCL -
news], Silicon Graphics Inc. [NYSE:SGI - news], Sun Microsystems, The Boeing Company [NYSE:BA - news], and Wall
Data.
The Web has quickly become a mission-critical network for many businesses. Yet despite increasing reliance upon it, the
Web continues to be frustratingly slow. ''The biggest complaint about using the Web is its slow speed,'' said David Strom, an
industry analyst and publisher of the Web Informant online newsletter. ''Users spend far too much time waiting for Web
pages to appear on their screens. CacheFlow's technology attacks this problem head-on, delivering Web pages with
extraordinary speed.''
The main cause of the Web's slowness is the series of delays that occur within the network. Browsers can be thousands of
miles from servers, and the request/response nature of TCP and HTTP can require dozens of round trips through a complex
maze of networks just to load a single page. More bandwidth will not deliver Web pages faster because bandwidth does not
address the issue of distance. The only possible solution is to store the most frequently requested data closer to the end user.
This approach, called Web caching, can eliminate the major delays facing Web users.
The Web Is A Mission-Critical Network
''Many companies are gaining competitive advantage by deploying a wide variety of business applications on the Web,'' said
Michael Malcolm, Chairman, president and CEO of CacheFlow. ''The irony is that the Web is frustratingly slow, restricting
the productivity of its users. CacheFlow was founded to solve this problem and enable companies to increase their
Web-based competitive advantage.''
The Web is an extraordinarily dynamic environment -- one that presents unique technical challenges to any system attempting
to cache Web objects. CacheFlow's Web cache technology, a highly reliable hardware/software combination which plugs
easily into existing networks, was designed specifically to address these challenges in order to offer amazingly fast Web
response time for users. ''The CacheFlow system is awesome,'' said Evi Nemeth, associate professor of Computer Science
at University of Colorado. ''It is easy to configure, speedy to deliver Web pages to the end user, and it saves some
bandwidth too.''
Management Team
Michael Malcolm is Chairman, President and CEO of CacheFlow. He previously co-founded Network Appliance, Inc.
(Nasdaq: NTAP - news), a California company that develops and sells high-performance network filers, where he served as
president and CEO. Prior to founding Network Appliance he spent five years as an industry consultant in the areas of
product planning, business strategy, system architecture, and due diligence. His clients included Auspex Systems, Sun
Microsystems, Quantum Corporation [Nasdaq:QNTM - news], and Tandem Computers. Before that, Malcolm was
Chairman and CEO of the Canadian company Waterloo Microsystems. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from
Stanford University. As a tenured associate professor of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, Malcolm directed
one of the most prominent research projects in Canada. He holds numerous U.S. and foreign patents in computing and
communications.
Rangaswamy Vasudevan (Vasu) is CacheFlow's Chief Technical Officer. Before joining CacheFlow, he worked at Sun
Microsystems from 1989 to 1997. Most recently he held the title of Sun Distinguished Engineer and worked as the architect
for JavaSoft and SunSoft. His many contributions at Sun include being the architect for Java Naming and Directory Interface,
the architect for Internet products in SunSoft, and the inventor of the federated naming system. Before joining Sun, Vasu was
an associate professor of Computer Science at the University of Calgary. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree in
Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo.
Joseph Pruskowski is the Executive Vice President of CacheFlow. He previously co-founded InterConnections, Inc., a
Washington company that developed and sold software for connecting PCs to minicomputers, where he served both as vice
president of Engineering and as president and CEO. Before InterConnections, Pruskowski held a variety of technical and
management positions at Sandia National Laboratories, Digital Equipment Corporation, and ESCA Corporation.
Douglas Crow is CacheFlow's Vice President of Product Development. Previously he served in technical positions at Wall
Data, Inc., InterConnections, Inc., The Boeing Company and ESCA Corporation.
Bill Warner is Vice President of Sales at CacheFlow. He has more than 15 years of Sales and Marketing management
experience with high technology companies including Silicon Graphics Inc. and UNISYS Computer Systems.
Kelly Herrell is CacheFlow's Vice President of Marketing. Previously he was at Oracle Corporation as senior director of
Marketing in the Server Technologies Division, which develops and markets Oracle's industry-leading database software
worldwide. Formerly Herrell was the Director of Strategy for NCR Corporation [NYSE:NCR - news]'s Parallel Systems
Division.
Ray Myers is Vice President Customer Service and Manufacturing at CacheFlow. Before joining the company, he was vice
president of Manufacturing at Network Appliance. Previously he held several positions at Rational Software Inc. Prior to his
time at Rational, Myers was at Four Phase Systems (now owned by Motorola) from 1969 to 1982, where his last position
was as vice president of manufacturing.
About CacheFlow
CacheFlow was founded in March, 1996, and received $5.1 million in venture capital funding led by Benchmark Capital. The
company's headquarters are in Palo Alto, California. Additional investors in the company's first round of financing include
Kelly-Hanna Capital Management; Michael Malcolm; C. Gordon Bell, former VP of Engineering for Digital Equipment
Corporation; James Katzman, co-founder of Tandem Computers Incorporated and former Technology Venture Investors
general partner; Burt McMurtry, former Technology Venture Investors general partner; and Walter Lowenstern, co-founder
of ROLM Corporation.
Jeff |
