See correction below
Warp 2063e Application Acceleration Appliance
Warp Solutions, warpsolutions.com/
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 Consider 7.9 |
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| criteria |
score |
| Ease-of-use |
7 |
 |
| Implementation |
8 |
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| Innovation |
9 |
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| Interoperability |
7 |
|
| Scalability |
9 |
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| Security |
9 |
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| Suitability |
8 |
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| Support |
8 |
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| Training |
8 |
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| Value |
6 |
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Business Case:
Caching can provide considerable improvements in the number of users a Web site can support and the average access times a
user experiences, both of which play a large role in customer satisfaction.
Technology Case:
This appliance goes beyond the usual static content caching to include dynamic content, with minimal intrusion into existing
Web site architecture.
Pros:
+ Provides caching of dynamic as well as static data
+ Can detect changes in a back-end database
+ No impact on existing Web site architecture
Cons:
- Plug-in support limited to most common Web servers
- Database support limited to Oracle
- Relatively expensive
Cost:
Starts at $80,000 per unit
Platforms:
Apache on Solaris, Linux, or BSD; IIS on Windows; Netscape, iPlanet on Solaris
Bottom Line:
An appliance that can improve the number of users a Web site can support, and average user access times. The 2063e goes beyond
static content caching to include dynamic content, with minimal intrusion into existing site architecture.
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About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology
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There are many Web acceleration appliances around, which perform functions from caching to SSL off-loading. The Warp Solutions
2063e Application Acceleration Appliance is a caching appliance that attempts to address the issue of dynamic content. Early
caching devices were very good at caching static data, but they had no way of handling dynamic content. The 2063e not only
can handle dynamic content but also work directly with Oracle databases to ensure that content is updated as necessary.
The 2063e consists of a 2u (3.5-inch) Intel-based, rack-mount PC with dual 2.8GHz Xeon hyperthreading processors, 4GB of RAM, two 10/100/1000 NICs and one 10/100 NIC, two 34GB Ultra 160 SCSI drives, and redundant power supplies.
Many caching appliances run either as a router, sitting between the Internet and the Web server, or as a proxy, with all traffic
directed first to the appliance rather than to the Web server. The 2063e operates differently, using a server plug-in on each
Web server to identify which content should be served from the 2063e and which from the Web server. By default, the 2063e
caches all the content requested from the Web server; the plug-in connects to a rules file on the appliance that specifies
when cached content should be expired and refreshed.
The plug-in architecture means that there is no need to change DNS settings for the network or the Web servers, and there
would be no network impact if the 2063e should fail. The plug-in supports Apache 1.3.x on Solaris, Linux, or BSD; Microsoft
IIS 4.x and 5.x on Windows NT and Windows 2000; and Netscape Enterprise 3.x and 4.x and iPlanet 6.x Web servers on Solaris. There is also a proxy mode that supports Web servers that aren’t supported via a plug-in or other types of servers such as application servers. Non-supported Web servers can still handle dynamic caching,
but the 2063e must be set up in proxy mode, which requires reconfiguring the network.
In addition to allowing you to set rules to govern the expiration of cached content, the 2063e can track changes in back-end
Oracle databases and respond accordingly. The database bridge is an Oracle script that creates a set of tables that flag changes
in the database content. The script runs from the Warp appliance, at regular intervals you specify, and doesn't require any
additional software installs.
Setting up and testing the 2063e is a fairly involved process. First, the basic IP configuration is done through a serial terminal, then the rest of the setup and administration can be performed through the Web interface (or via the command line interface).
The Web interface is accessed via the IP address of the Warp 2063e with a port number of 8000, and a separate log-in and password
from the command line log-in.
The next step is to use a supplied Windows or Linux application to create a rules file for identifying content that needs
to be flushed from the cache and refreshed. The rules editor makes it simple to create the rules file. The rules file is an
XML document, which can also be created manually or with a script. Once you have created the rules file and uploaded it to
the 2063e, you install the plug-in on the Web server and edit a configuration file on the Web server to reflect the IP address
of the 2063e.
The 2063e can preserve content that has been invalidated until the new version is available. It can also rewrite embedded
personalized links on cached pages with the current user value so that personalized content is presented properly. As long
as the content is specified in the URL (e.g., http://www.xyz.com/content/catalog.asp?search=gadget), that content will be
cached and can be delivered to anyone else who wants that specific search.
In addition to a refresh of content triggered by the rules file or the database bridge, a refresh can be triggered by a refresh
request from a client browser or by the amount of time lapsed since last access.
To test the database bridge functionality, we configured an Oracle database and set up a small Web site that pulled catalog
items from the database. The 2063e currently supports only Oracle databases, although Warp Solutions can add support for any
JDBC-compliant database if a customer requests it. The database bridge utility creates two tables and a stored procedure,
which identifies changes in the database and sends a message to the 2063e when it’s necessary to update the cached data.
We ran a load-testing application against the Web server, then turned on the 2063e and reran the tests. Depending on the number
of simulated clients, response times with the 2063e were one-half to one-fifth of times without it and throughput increased
by an average of 321 percent.
These numbers will vary considerably, depending on the application and network bottlenecks. However, the benefits of caching
are well-established; the real issue is whether the 2063e can work well with dynamic content in addition to the usual static
content that all caching products can handle. In our tests, changing data in the database produced the update in cached data
that it should have, and changes to content defined in the rules file also triggered refreshes of the cache.
Whether the 2063e will produce dramatic results in your application will depend on the type of data served. For example, on
a data search portal or a very large catalog application with mostly unique searches, the 2063e will provide much less of
an advantage than with applications that have dynamic data that is requested by many users. According to Warp Solutions, performance
increases of up to 600 percent have been noted by some of its customers.
The 2063e can be deployed in an active/active failover configuration and supports a load balanced configuration as well. SSL
support is included. The 2063e also includes SNMP capability so that enterprise monitoring applications can gather performance
data from it.
The biggest limitation to the current version of the 2063e is that it supports only Oracle databases. The next version, due
in April, will be database-agnostic. If you’re using an Oracle database and a supported Web server, and if your Web site’s
dynamic data is amenable to caching, the 2063e is well worth investigating.
Correction
In this article, we misreported the name of the product reviewed. It is Warp 2063.
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