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Sluggish e-mail … distorted video clips … echoes on VoIP
phone calls … These are just a few symptoms of poor application
performance, today’s No. 1 headache for information technology
officers.
 When
programs aren’t working properly, CIOs typically react by
blaming software vendors and demanding that they fix the problem
– or by adding more network bandwidth. Yet neither does much
to improve application-response time.
“The network is the weakest link in the application performance
equation,” says Scott Ryan, CEO of Asankya, an ATDC member
company that is pioneering a new approach to application delivery
and consistency. “What’s counter-intuitive is that network
delay, not just bandwidth, also contributes to undermining
application performance.”
In the past, computer users typically accessed software programs
from local area networks (LANs), however, remote usage is
the new norm. Due to increased telecommuting, cost-cutting
strategies and data-center consolidation, employees are increasingly
accessing their companies’ applications over wide area networks
(WANs), which span large geographical areas. But there’s some
fallout: Software programs that had plenty of zip on LANs
suddenly become lethargic on WANs.
In response, Asankya is commercializing “grid networking,”
an innovative technology developed by Raghupathy
Sivakumar, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School
of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Similar to grid computing,
where program processing is farmed out to multiple computers, Asankya gains efficiencies by using multiple circuits on a
network. The company’s patent-pending technology tracks four
network characteristics: throughput, delay, jitter and loss.
With this information, “smart-scheduling” algorithms split
the flow of individual user sessions, sending them across
multiple network paths. No reassembly is needed at the receiver;
session packets arrive in order even though they have traveled
across different circuits.
“Network intelligence has typically been concentrated at
the receiving end,” says Ryan, a 15-year veteran of the networking
and Internet industries. “What we’ve done is move more intelligence
to the sending side.” The payoff? All IP-based applications
run faster and more reliably across WANs – with typical improvements
of 500 percent.
Asankya’s Grid Networking System (GNS) devices work for all
TCP/IP environments, including wired and wireless networks,
and can be installed without changes to customers’ networks.
In contrast, existing traffic-management solutions are complex
to implement and manage, Ryan observes. “What’s more, we have
the only solution that improves performance for real-time
programs like Voice over Internet Protocol, and Internet Protocol
Television,” he adds, “and these are the fastest-growing traffic
segments on networks.”
And though Asankya uses multiple pathways, it’s not to be
confused with load balancing or multipeering solutions like
route optimization or border gateway protocol (BGP). “These
techniques are primarily for resiliency and provide little
performance benefit,” Sivakumar says.
Multipeering techniques work at the flow level whereas Asankya
works at the packet level, he explains: “They can only choose
one ISP or another for each flow while we can make alternate
choices for each packet within each ISP. If you don’t work
at our granularity, you cannot react to the fast-changing,
burstiness of the network and miss the ability to maximize
application performance.”
Enhancing its core technology, Asankya has developed nine
patent-pending technologies in-house that provide end-to-end
quality of service and TCP optimization.
In 2004, spending to improve application performance totaled
$520 million. A burgeoning category, industry analysts look
for annual growth rates to range from 25-40 percent.
Asankya is initially targeting Internet, cable and telecommunications
service providers as well as large companies where network
delay and security are key issues. Beta-testing began in November
with two companies, a global accounting firm and a large ISP.
Although Asankya is currently focused on improving applications
on WANs, its technology has broad applications. Sivakumar
says that future opportunities include edge routing, wireless
mesh networking, wireless roaming, triple play (voice, video
and data) and “last mile” delivery.
Asankya recently closed on more than $2.5 million in funding,
led by Veritas Venture
Capital, an Israeli venture-capital firm with offices
in Atlanta. Joining Veritas in the investment were the Seraph
Group, an Atlanta-based venture fund, and Steve W. Chaddick,
a Georgia Tech alumnus and co-founder of Alpharetta-based
CIENA Corp.
The money will be used for ongoing beta trials and launch
of commercial product, which is slated for spring 2006.
Founded by Sivakumar in 2004, Asankya is a product of VentureLab,
Georgia Tech’s program to help faculty move innovations out
of research labs and into commercial markets. In September,
the company graduated from VentureLab and was accepted into
ATDC, Georgia Tech’s incubator for high-growth companies.
ATDC provides a variety of critical resources, from physical
office space to administrative support, observes Ryan, who
co-founded Incanta, a broadband application company and former
ATDC company. “More important,” he adds, “ATDC lends its knowledge
and experience so entrepreneurs can make better, more confident
decisions.”
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