Stampede to Expand Web App Performance Product Line

by Dan Burger

Last week at Lotusphere, Notes/Domino fans saw and heard much more from IBM Lotus about taking Domino applications to the Web. IBM's resolve toward Web-based applications built on Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), running on WebSphere and used in a portal, was anything but understated. As this Web tide sweeps over Lotus, Stampede Technologies, a long-time provider of performance enhancing products for the Lotus market, has announced a new product that fits right in with IBM's initiative.

Stampede officials say this new Web application optimization software, called WebRider, will not only increase performance but also reduce network, bandwidth, and storage costs for users of Lotus Notes/Domino 6.5, Web Access, Team Workplace, WebSphere portal, and Lotus Workplace Messaging. While making the WebRider announcement last week at Lotusphere, Stampede indicated that the product would become generally available in four months.

So what will distinguish WebRider from the other products in the Stampede performance-enhancing stable?

WebRider will accelerate native HTTP traffic flow between the client and enterprise application server, and it will do so while running on a Linux server with a 64-bit processor. Stampede's president and CEO, Gordon Dorworth, says WebRider was designed with 64-bit processing power in order to beef up its capability to handle SSL encryption, GZIP compression, and TCP connection management, and therefore to reduce network workloads. By taking those loads from the server, CPUs are available and are applied to other tasks. The advantages of 64-bit processing will also become more evident as more complex data-analysis tasks are built into applications.

Bidirectional HTTP compression and intelligent object retrieval, Dorworth says, are two reasons why WebRider will improve network performance and lower the overall cost of ownership. The compression technology results in larger data transfers and use of cache differencing, which Dorworth sites as being one of WebRider's most important features in reducing bandwidth requirements. Because it tracks bandwidth and throughput savings, a feature for generating reports was also added, giving users an analytical tool that provides an indicator of its own value.

WebRider's compatibility with IBM Lotus Workplace should put it in a good position as enterprise-level companies and independent software vendors implement WebSphere portal technology. The importance of this technology and its increasingly cozy relationship with Domino was evident throughout Lotusphere. (For more on that topic, see "New Domino and Blue Domino: A Little of Both At Lotusphere.")

Because of its potential as an important aid in "portalizing" Domino applications, Dorworth foresees an ongoing business relationship with many of Stampede's existing customers, but he also hopes to develop customers in new markets, because WebRider is designed to benefit Web-based applications built on XML, J2EE and Microsoft .NET platforms.

A similar strategy has been put in place with Stampede's latest release of its flagship TurboGold product. General availability of TurboGold Enterprise Edition Release 2 began last week, and Stampede highlighted the product and demonstrated it at Lotusphere last week. The TurboGold client runs on Windows platforms, and the TurboGold server runs on iSeries as well as pSeries, zSeries, and Windows NT, 2000, and XP platforms. (The article "Stampede Breaks Free from Domino Mold with New Acceleration Software" explains Release 2 in detail.)