Net Appliance Devices Speed Streaming Media

SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA (10/09/2000) - Network Appliance Inc. is expected to unveil hardware and software this week that the company claims will make delivery of video on demand and streaming media faster and more manageable.

The NetCache C6100 and C1105 content delivery appliances are rack-mounted devices for large companies and service providers. The C6100 is aimed at data center customers and can cache up to 2 terabytes of data and deliver streamed content at more than 1G bit/sec. The remote office C1105 can cache up to 72G bytes of data. Both boxes offer video-on-demand streaming at greater than 500M bit/sec. The C6100 and the C1105 are available now starting at $74,000 and $10,950, respectively.

Network Appliance will also introduce content delivery software that works with the C6100 and C1105 appliances. The software, called NetCache 5.0, supports all streaming protocols, including RealNetworks Inc.'s RealMedia, Microsoft Corp.'s Media Player or Apple Computer Inc.'s QuickTime. It also supports the Internet Content Adaptation Protocol, which enables virus scanning, ad insertion or Web content reformatting based on the type of data flowing through the appliance. NetCache 5.0 also supports Domain Name System caching and Windows NT LAN Manager authentication. The software is included with Network Appliance's caching hardware.

"Streaming is certainly an important part of receiving your return on investment in your cache," says Jason Campbell, chief technology officer for Zack Network Inc. in San Mateo, Calif. Zack will integrate Network Appliance's software and hardware with its software that modifies and prepares content in real time for distribution to customers.

To manage this hardware, Network Appliance will offer ContentDirector and ContentReporter. These software packages let administrators manage content delivery, set policies and report on operations. ContentDirector manages and distributes content across Network Appliance's caching appliances and file server products. ContentReporter provides billing capability.

ContentDirector lets content be made available based on date and time or other policies. It runs on Linux, Solaris, NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. ContentReporter automatically collects usages and bandwidth statistics and generates reports. Both products will be available in November. ContentDirector starts at $40,000; ContentReporter begins at $20,000.

Network Appliance: www.netapp.com