Switches balance hot content

Demand-based content replication has been added to ArrowPoint Communications' switching technology. The feature replicates 'hot' content on web caches to keep access speeds up while keeping crashes down.

ArrowPoint said the addition of demand-based content replication for its CS-100 and CS-800 Content Smart Web switches makes them the first devices that enable sites to respond to 'flash' peaks that cause high demand for certain content.

If the switch spots a trend in demand for particular content, it replicates the content on specifically designated overflow caches or servers. The new resources are then brought into load-balancing rotation so the machines under stress will not receive further requests until traffic is reduced.

The same technology allows the switches to update and synchronise content automatically without taking the servers off-line, even across distributed websites.

Stan Schatt, research director at Giga Information Group, said service providers have led the way in the deployment of intelligent switches, but now corporates are becoming interested in load balancing to manage resources over global sites.

"There are great advantages in placing more intelligence in switches to prioritise traffic," said Schatt. "Layer 5 to Layer 7 switching is a term that has been thrown around rather loosely, but more intelligent switches allow the provision of new services."

Schatt added that intelligent switches could be used, for example, to prioritise response time in e-commerce operations.

According to ArrowPoint, the enhancement to its switches allows greater scalability of websites without the expense of adding more dedicated web servers.

Jeroen Van den Oever, IT director of ArrowPoint CS-800 user HostNet, said: "The switches work as an intelligent filing system, by farming out specific content requests to the fastest site and server at that time, and less demanded content on lower-end machines."