The product uses content transformation and rich and large file graphics conversion to speed content delivery. AppCelera also offloads Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) processing to increase the performance of Web servers. CIO Mike Stevens says members have seen a performance improvement of about fifty percent since system deployment.
Before making the final AppCelera decision, MidWest Financial took a llok at caching appliances, but found them to be more beneficial for static content. Many other devices were more than double the company's budget.
V. Unanswered Questions
Answers to the following questions would be useful to properly assess Midwest Financial's options.
Did the company try to optimize its site for use over by low-bandwidth connections by, for example, using HTML pages light on graphics and streaming media?
Although half of Midwest Financial's members currently use dial-up Internet connections, what are their plans for the future? Doesn't Midwest expect Broadband to grow over time and dial-up to decline?
The company has taken an approach that is of benefit to dial-up users. Does this mean that broadband users are completely happy with their performance times? Could this change as...
Last Word/Conclusions
Apparently, Midwest Financial has opted for a solution that has addressed today's problems. it's going to run into problems as Broadband continues to displace dial up and as online members increase. and, it seems counterintuitive to approach any thing from a client-side perspective to solve an Internet issue, even if it does produce some short-term fix. For all these reasons, the bank ought to have optimized its site for low-bandwidth connections as a way to minimize performance problems for dial-up users. Instead of selecting AppCelera ICS, Midwest should have gone with a server-side acceleration device that frees servers from resource-intensive tasks rather than focusing on client-side gains. In this way, it could accommodate the probable increase in members and Broadband use.
Bibliography
Carr, J.(2003, May 5). Business Case: MidWest Financial Banks on Content Acceleration. Retrieved February 16, 2005, at http://www.cconvergence.com/shared/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=9400003
