ISP Robustifier ensures reliability for data networks

A start-up company formed by ex-Ericsson developers last week launched a product that aims to deliver high 'telecom-level' reliability to data networks.

Bluetail's ISP Robustifier, targeted at ISPs and corporates, sits in between users and the web or file servers. Here it provides load-balancing that shifts traffic to alleviate congestion on mission-critical environments like those used in e-business.

It also uses queuing technology - previously employed only in telecoms equipment - which holds users in a queue when servers are close to capacity.

The system also identifies different users, so a high-level user can be moved further up the queue or have more bandwidth allocated.

Joe Armstrong, technical director at Bluetail, said: "Users shouldn't accept that they can't do their job because of a technical glitch. We are chasing the single points of failure out of system software."

John Collins, senior analyst at Bloor research said: " This is just another short-term application. All companies, 3Com, Cisco, etc, are trying to solve the problems of network weakness. Users are demanding real-time interaction: put them on hold and they will go somewhere else."