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WALTHAM, Mass., and BURLINGTON, Mass., Aug 12, 2002 — Internet traffic route optimization leader Sockeye Networks Inc. and leading bandwidth solutions provider InvisibleHand Networks Inc. have announced a technology partnership that replaces today’s inflexible and outdated bandwidth contracts with the ability to price and allocate IP bandwidth on demand, at a price that reflects its true worth.
The agreement brings Sockeye Networks’ GlobalRoute Service for managing network traffic based on performance and cost together with InvisibleHand Networks’ Merkato™ software platform for real-time, dynamic pricing and allocation of IP bandwidth. For the first time, participants on both sides of the equation will have maximum control in buying and selling IP bandwidth.
Until now, bandwidth buyers have had to deal with a “best-guess” approach to bandwidth projections to ensure capacity when it’s needed, which when coupled with fixed-term, flat-rate and 95th percentile-based contracts, ultimately penalizes buyers. At the same time, IP service providers have been unable to sell under-utilized capacity. With Sockeye and InvisibleHand Networks, buyers will be able to purchase bandwidth on demand at market-based prices and optimally route traffic to multiple service providers, ensuring that their performance criteria are met while getting the best price. Sellers will be able to attract more traffic with flexible pricing and quality, guaranteed and automatically delivered in real-time.
“IP service providers and their customers are looking for new ways to cost effectively increase the quality of bandwidth on their networks,” said Nick Maynard, senior analyst of the Yankee Group, an industry research firm based in Boston. “By tying intelligent routing to price, Sockeye and InvisibleHand Networks have created a solution that gives providers and customers a tool to more accurately assess the value of bandwidth, giving users the opportunity to lower network costs while increasing performance.”
Sockeye’s GlobalRoute Service gives network managers the ability to proactively optimize their IP traffic based on performance and cost criteria. GlobalRoute dynamically ensures that traffic is routed along the optimal path, defined by the customer’s criteria, for specific destinations. InvisibleHand Networks’ Merkato enables IP network service providers, enterprise customers and web-hosting companies to come together in carrier neutral facilities where pricing and allocation are optimized for efficiency.
“Performance and demand are the two most critical drivers of price in the IP bandwidth market,” said James Earl Brown III, president and CEO of InvisibleHand Networks. “This agreement represents a major step forward in the evolution of pricing models for the data transport market, coupling traffic routing with bandwidth purchasing to help buyers optimize bandwidth buying strategies and to help service providers get more from their network investments.”
StreamingHand, a subsidiary service of InvisibleHand, is already using Sockeye’s GlobalRoute Service. StreamingHand allows bandwidth buyers to purchase IP bandwidth on demand with guaranteed allocations and savings of on-average 30 percent on bandwidth costs. By using GlobalRoute Service, StreamingHand is able to control the routing of customers’ traffic to a variety of Tier 1 service providers based on the wholesale price and traffic conditions both at the network edge and global Internet level to optimize the costs for StreamingHand. StreamingHand then passes along further savings to its customers.
“InvisibleHand is part of a market segment that’s rapidly changing the way network bandwidth is bought and sold,” said Valeri Marks, Sockeye’s chairman and CEO. “GlobalRoute assures that InvisibleHand’s customers and, in turn their customers, get precisely the optimum cost/performance package they need and have paid for. This provides tremendous value for customers over traditional pre-determined bandwidth agreements that have unknown network quality and elusive service level agreements (SLAs).”
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Sockeye Networks and GlobalRoute are trademarks and service marks of Sockeye Networks, Inc. InvisibleHand Networks, StreamingHand service, and Merkato are registered trademarks of InvisibleHand Networks, Inc.
Founded in 1998, InvisibleHand Networks is changing the way bandwidth is bought and sold. InvisibleHand’s innovative software platform, Merkato, dynamically prices, sells and allocates IP bandwidth in real-time, offering a new revenue and profit model for Neutral Exchange and Co-location Providers, Hosting Providers and IP Network Service Providers. InvisibleHand participates in the Cisco sponsored Service Provider Solutions Ecosystem Program, which helps speed time-to-market of service providers and their solutions. The company is backed by Polaris Venture Partners and the Community Technology Fund at Boston University. InvisibleHand Networks, Inc. is based in Burlington, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit http://www.invisiblehand.net.
Sockeye Networks is a leading provider of route optimization services. By combining customer-specific edge traffic and flow data measurements with real-time data on global Internet traffic conditions, exclusively licensed from Akamai Technologies, Sockeye Networks proactively optimizes IP connections for businesses. Sockeye Networks delivers unprecedented network performance, efficiency, and visibility, enabling businesses to confidently depend on the Internet for mission-critical applications. GlobalRoute was the first route optimization service to support all IP traffic, including VPN applications. The company received $28 million in first-round funding from Baker Capital, Battery Ventures, CSFB Private Equity, and Polaris Venture Partners. For more information visit http://www.sockeye.com.
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