Start-Up Has iSharp Focus On Site Performance

Web-site performance testing, once the domain of IT managers equipped with tools from Mercury Interactive and other stalwarts, is now also available as a service from newcomer iSharp.

The company's nascent offering is being tested by Rollingstone.com, Pets.com and other sites that must support ever-growing numbers of hits.

More specialized in focus than site-management firms such as MimEcom and Loudcloud, iSharp concentrates on identifying and monitoring site performance problems, as well as predicting future server capacity.

By offering only one or two services needed to manage a site, iSharp may be limiting itself, says one source familiar with the company's strategy.

iSharp CEO Rick Schell disagrees. "Some companies do the whole enchilada, but we think that doing a deep job in any aspect of being a managed service provider is difficult enough," he says.

In fact, iSharp's service could complement a customer's relationship with a partner that is hosting and maintaining his site, Schell says. "We separate the Internet latency [from] what is happening within the site itself," says Schell, who once served as vice president at software development at Netscape.

Rollingstone.com, Chicago, is averaging 30 million hits per month, says Mike Boeh, director of technology. While the site is currently running a pilot of iSharp's service, Rollingstone.com plans to use the full version, he says. "It helps us know when to buy new servers," Boeh says. "It frees us from doing procedures we would have to dedicate internal resources to."

Schell estimates companies could spend up to $1 million on hardware, software and IT expertise to test and monitor a site's performance. "We will do it for one-half to one-third of that" over a multiyear period, he says.