BoostWorks Adds New Appliance

The BoostEdge appliance is integrated with technology based on the vendor's BoostWeb software.

"People wanted a pre-integrated, plug-and-play solution so they don't have to buy the server, buy the operating system and load it on," said Charlie McCallan, vice president of product marketing and product management at BoostWorks, San Francisco.

Installed in front of the application server or Web server, the new appliance reduces the amount of bandwidth a Web application requires and speeds data transmissions with a combination of image conversion, object caching, protocol optimization and text compression, McCallan said.

For example, BoostEdge automatically converts GIF images to the PNG or JPEG file formats, which take up less bandwidth during transmission without losing picture quality, McCallan said.

BoostWorks' technology can help businesses get more out of their existing infrastructure and delay network upgrades, said Ed Blannard, vice president of sales at DocuTech, a network integrator based in Ivyland, Pa.

"Instead of building a [server farm and doing load-balancing, customers can stretch a single Web server longer," he said.

The BoostEdge appliance should be easier to demonstrate and sell than the vendor's software-only offerings, Blannard added. "The world has gone the appliance way. It gives people something to wrap their hands around," he said.

BoostEdge is available now in two versions: the BE500, a 1U model that supports a single application at up to 1,000 connections per second, and the BE1000, a 2U model that supports multiple applications at up to 2,000 connections per second.

Pricing for the BE500 starts at $20,500, while pricing for the BE1000 starts at $40,000.