ServerWatch News Briefs for March 26, 2004
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- Coyote Point Systems Brings Load Balancing to Blades
- New Version on Tomcat Web Server Connector Released
- Equinux Gets Cozy With Novell BorderManager
Coyote Point Systems Brings Load Balancing to Blades
Coyote Point Systems this week made its load balancing technology available to blade server OEMs.
As of Wednesday, its Equalizer technology is available for license to blade server vendors. Up until then, the technology was available in three load-balancing appliances: the Equalizer E250i, the Equalizer E350/450, and the Equalizer XCEL.
The Equalizer can manage more than 15,000,000 connections an hour and detects changes in server status automatically. It then routes requests accordingly. It can also add or remove servers without bringing the site down and provides hot-backup configuration to eliminate any single point of failure.
Coyote Point has taken the software component and optimized it for blades, Bill Kish, founder and CTO of Coyote Point Systems, told ServerWatch. The software will run on a blade dedicated to load balancing and is capable of balancing up to an entire rack -- up to 48 blades, Kish said.
Although no deals have yet been inked, Kish said the vendor "is in discussion with OEMs." As OEMs come on board, Coyote Point will modify Equalizer so it is optimized for the specific hardware.
The lack of standards has often been referenced as a major impediment to blade adoption. Although Equalizer does not resolve this issue, it works around it because of its software roots.
Kish sees F5 Networks as Coyote Point's main competition in the blade space. F5 sells a variety of traffic management products.
New Version on Tomcat Web Server Connector Released
The Tomcat team released of version 2.0.4 of the Apache Tomcat mod_jk2 Web server connector.
Tomcat is the reference implementation of a Web application server that implements the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages specifications; mod_jk2 is a connector that enables a Web server, such as Apache HTTPD or IIS to act as a front end to the Tomcat web application server.
This release fixes a variety of major bugs and is the first one to use the now mandatory APR.
The file CHANGES.txt in the source distribution offers a complete list of changes. It can be downloaded from either http://jakarta.apache.org/site/binindex.cgi or http://jakarta.apache.org/site/sourceindex.cgi.
Equinux Gets Cozy With Novell BorderManager
equinux, a Macintosh-compatible VPN software vendor, this week announced compatibility with Novell BorderManager 3.8. The partnership enables remote Mac users in Novell network environments to establish secure connections using equinux's VPN Tracker.
Novell BorderManager includes firewall and VPN technologies to safeguard networks from potential internal and external threats. By operating a Novell BorderManager environment and using equinux VPN Tracker as a remote VPN client for the Mac, heterogeneous networks have a more comprehensive network protection tool. Novell and equinux will together provide certificate management user authentication in the form of X.509 certificates to assure military-grade security and large scalability for enterprise usage.
"Combining Novell BorderManager and equinux VPN Tracker ensures your information is as secure as it can get", Ortwin Gentz, CTO of equinux, said in a prepared statement. "By supporting IPSec, the open industry standard for VPNs, equinux and Novell offer Mac users a seamless and easy way to get connected to Novell-based networks."
Novell BorderManager 3.8 is available immediately for $40 per user through Novell channel partners. Upgrade pricing for BorderManager 3.8 is available to current customers as well as those migrating from competing products.
VPN Tracker can be purchased from equinux's Web site, as well as from authorized VPN Tracker consultants. Pricing starts at $89.90 for a single Personal Edition license; the Professional Edition version is $199.90. equinux offers volume discounts for multiple license purchases.
