Getting a Hand On Web Site Performance

In a high-tech environment where new technologies evolve on a daily basis, one of the most useful markets focuses on Web site performance. The standard Web site performance technologies use probes, usually placed at high-traffic points on the Internet, to detect the efficiency of various Web destinations. The efficiency of a Web site is measured by looking at the download time of each page.

The fact is that an increasing number of online businesses are becoming interested in Web site performance measurement. That may have something to do with a recent Nielsen/NetRatings report that the average e-customer will allow six to seven seconds, at most, for a Web page to download before giving up and seeking out a new e-retailer that can provide a faster service. And considering the rapid rate of technological advance in the industry and the increasing expectations of e-consumers, experts say the six to seven second barrier may be reduced to five seconds by the end of the year.

While the goal of Web site performance technologies is to track the efficiency of a Web page as experienced by the end-user, many of the products currently on the market may not be giving their clients the most accurate appraisal. Many of the current Web site performance technologies are conducting their appraisals based solely on a T-1 or DSL connection, while it is reported by Jupiter Communications that 70 to 80 percent of end-users are still using 56K connections.

Couple this with the fact that most current Web site performance technologies have been placing fixed probes at major peering points on the Internet as opposed to a more random placement of probes at the "edges of the Internet," and it becomes evident that while those technologies have provided the valuable service of giving companies and consumers a first look at Web site efficiency, they have left the door open for products that can provide more refined performance data.

Probing 'Probester'
One of the technologies that has followed this lead and has begun providing clients with more accurate Web site performance monitoring is a patent-pending data engine called Probester. Developed by SolidSpeed Networks, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based, distributed information infrastructure company offering managed services to Web hosting providers, Probester was initially tested on the company's own content delivery network (CDN). The Probester technology uses thousands of idle, although connected, PCs to gauge the performance of Web sites from the end users' desktop, the outer edge of the Internet.

Through agreements with distributive computing companies such as Entropia, SolidSpeed Networks is able to place Probester in a large number of locations, including some of the less frequented points on the Internet, in an effort to provide a more accurate measurement technology. Through those agreements, Probester is embedded in a background process of computer users who have volunteered the use of idle computation time on their PCs. Next, a group of URLs are sent to a PC to conduct probes on a random basis. Finally, Probester performs its measurements as instructed, connects to the SolidSpeed Network and uploads the newly-obtained information. The information is then compiled into graphs and statistics portraying the reliability and speed of a given Web site. This information is then delivered directly to the client.

"By virtue of volume of measurements, we provide an accurate assessment technology," says Dean Massab, vice president of business development and marketing at SolidSpeed Networks. "We initially developed Probester to validate the performance of our CDN, but after realizing how accurate this technology could be, we began marketing it as a service to our clients."

In a recent study, Probester performance data was compared with that of Keynote Systems, a performance measurement company and publisher of Keynote Business 40, a performance metric of 40 business Web sites. The Probester data revealed that the actual end-user experience in downloading Keynote Business 40 sites to be more than six times slower than the data published by Keynote.

The Benefits
After identifying a more accurate technology for measuring Web site performance, what can employing this technology mean to business owners? According to Massab, the efficient nature of creating a more accurate performance measurement tool from thousands of desktop locations across the Internet allows SolidSpeed to provide the Probester technology at a significantly reduced cost when compared with other Web site performance monitoring services.

Using Probester data as the 'proof of performance,' businesses can leverage improved service level agreements (SLAs) with their ISPs.

"Businesses can use Probester data to tailor their Web site design to better accommodate their customers' dial-up, cable and DSL connections to the Internet," says Neil Dueweke, president and CEO of SolidSpeed Networks.

In a market where seconds count, accurate Web site measurement services may allow companies to examine the efficiency of their own sites, while keeping on top of their competitors numbers. Web site measurement services offer compiled information reports on the efficiency of any company's Web site.

"The benefit of Probester and the added value to SolidSpeed's CDN service is that it provides a significantly more accurate picture of my company's Web site speed and reliability," says Matthew Hollingsworth, president and CEO of TechEmployment.com, a Probester beta tester.

Most recently, Probester published a report on Valentine's Day efficiency of the top five online florists.

Breaking the Bottleneck--DWDM
While measurement technologies offer extensive information on individual destinations, the Web site performance market is also fostering new emerging technologies that are working to improve the efficiency of the Internet at large. One of the technologies that will have an impact on impending Internet bottlenecks and the need for increased bandwidth due to the emergence of innovations such as video on demand and remote data storage is dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM).

Ryan Hankin Kent, an industry market research and consulting firm, predicts the overall market for DWDM components will skyrocket, growing from $5 billion in 2000 to $24 billion by 2004. The firm also forecasts that no product area within the market will grow by less than 80 percent.

DWDM is a technology that enables telecommunications carriers to increase bandwidth on existing fiber networks without laying more fiber. At the new manufacturing plant, BTI will produce erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) and fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). An EDFA is an optical amplifier that amplifies a light signal for propagation across long-distance fiber networks. It allow light signals to propagate as light rather than having to be converted to electrical signals and back to light signals across an entire fiber route. FBGs filter and redirect wavelengths of light.

In a response to the growth in the optical components market, many manufacturers, such as Canadian-based BTI Photonics, a provider of fiber-optic network test equipment, are now setting their sights on the burgeoning DWDM technology. Recently, BTI Photonics received $9.5 million in VC financing for development and production of the DWDM technology, from firms including BCE Capital, Lucent Venture Partners, and Purple Angel, a group of angel investors comprised of former Nortel Networks executives.

"The global demand for DWDM components is very high right now. The financing enables us to leverage our proven capabilities and patented technologies to move into this exciting new area," says Dr. Vincent So, president, BTI Photonics. "With Internet traffic growing and demand for bandwidth increasing, the requirement for products to help alleviate network bottlenecks is high. BTI intends to become a market leader in filling this demand."

The emergence of technologies including DWDM and Web site performance measurement services like Probester appear to point towards a more efficient Internet with a host of new opportunities for businesses and consumers.

Michael D'Alise is a freelance writer based in New York. You can reach him at mdalise80@yahoo.com

Tweet

   

More Channel Programs