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Web Application Delivery for Local Search Engine and B2B Portal
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
- Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software
Applicable Industries
- Professional Service
- Software
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Remote Asset Management
- Remote Control
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
To manage the web traffic in both datacenters, the company previously leveraged load balancers from Coyote Point. However, amid rapid traffic growth, the previous load balancers were not scalable enough to meet stringent service level agreements for users so a higher performance Application Delivery Controller platform was required. In particular, the new load balancers must handle traffic flawlessly during peak load conditions, which happen to be on weekdays from 3-8 pm ET.
About The Customer
GenieKnows.com is a local search engine that connects search technology, community and content by developing niche-specific portals tailored for distinct searching communities, delivering a focused, useful and rewarding search experience. One of its key portals, GenieKnowsMedia.com, is a business-to-business (B2B) portal that empowers a broad distribution network for its advertisers, helping businesses connect with consumers and grow their bottom line by conveying meaningful, revenue-generating search results. Both are divisions of IT Interactive Services, Inc., a private Canadian media incorporation headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia. GenieKnows.com has 20 million business listing records with 170,000 unique visitors a month, and growing at 34-40% per month. In addition, GenieKnows.com has partnerships with companies such as Yahoo! and City Search to pull in sponsored search links with these partners. GenieKnowsMedia.com has 2 billion search requests on a monthly basis. Two datacenters run both web sites for redundancy.
The Solution
Moving up-market to replace the Coyote Point load balancers, the GenieKnows IT team had several choices to meet its performance and scalability requirements. It selected A10 ADCs and upgraded to an Advanced Application Delivery Controller platform that is twice the performance at half the price of market leading solutions. GenieKnows.com selected the A10 ADC for the following compelling reasons: Application Acceleration with Layer 7 Features to Boost Performance: By introducing functionality such as Source Network Address Translation (NAT) and advanced Layer 7 Client Source IP Insertion into all HTTP requests, GenieKnows realized immediate benefits in the performance of its web sites by eliminating an unnecessary routing hop in the network. GenieKnows can further accelerate the performance of its web sites by leveraging TCP connection reuse, compression, RAM caching and Layer 7 features in the A10 ADC platform, which are all available without feature or performance licensing fees. High Availability (HA): The A10 ADC provides maximum uptime for applications as well as itself. The A10 ADCs’ HA sub-second failover at each of GenieKnows’ datacenters ensures a seamless user experience, and peace of mind for the IT team. GenieKnows also has the opportunity to enable Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) at no additional charge when needed. Price/performance: After evaluation, the A10 ADC proved to be twice the performance at half the price of other solutions, ensuring headroom for growth and fiscal responsibility. The A10 ADC provides the industry’s only Scalable Symmetrical Multiprocessing (SSMP), state-of-the-art, new-generation architecture that consistently outperforms the competition, ultimately providing a faster and better experience to the end user.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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