IMAGESTREAM INTERNET SOLUTIONS, INC.
ALACRITECH CUSTOMER CASE STUDY

Leading supplier of Linux routers and WAN cards easily integrates Alacritech's fiber optic Gigabit Ethernet accelerator cards in chassis-based routing solution. Provides a U.S. government agency with wire-speed OC3 to Gigabit Ethernet and OC12 to Gigabit Ethernet performance at one-third of the price of competitor's solution.

• Industry/Market:
  » Government/Telecom
  
• Challenge:
  » Win high-profile government customer bid over well-known competitors
  » Provide a high-performance, low-cost solution on a standards-based platform in a small form-factor router
  » Convert OC3 to Gigabit Ethernet in small form-factor chassis and achieve wire-speed performance for government customer security application
  » Convert OC12 to Gigabit Ethernet in small form-factor chassis and meet performance specifications for government security application
  » Significantly increase routed data throughput to enable customer network to consolidate network access points for security application
  
• Solution:
  » Alacritech Gigabit Accelerators (fiber)
  
• Benefits:
  » ImageStream able to customize incredible price/performance solution at one-third of the competition's price
  » Government customer able to achieve extremely high performance in networked security application: wire-speed OC3, and OC12 performance well in excess of specified requirements and alternate solutions
  » ImageStream achieved 200% higher performance when replacing existing Gigabit Ethernet cards with Alacritech fiber optic Gigabit Ethernet accelerators
  » Government customer achieved 66% better throughput in OC3/OC12 to Gigabit Ethernet application than with competitive solutions for one-third the price

"Alacritech cards offload protocol processing, allowing us to get the additional system resources we need. By simply replacing our existing cards with Alacritech accelerators, we were able to achieve not only wire-speed OC3 to Gigabit routing, but had plenty of system resources available to exceed our customer's OC12 to Gigabit routing performance requirements. Our government customer is now getting 66% more performance than with our competitor's solution at one-third of the price. ImageStream already provides extremely fast and efficient routers with incredible price/performance ratios. Leveraging Alacritech's technology, we can take a standard COTS product and provide maximum performance, even up to OC12 and OC48 speeds, in a less expensive configuration. In this application, using Alacritech boards meant we slashed our per-unit cost in half."
     Doug Hass, Chief Operations Officer and OEM Product Manager
     ImageStream Internet Solutions, Inc.

Business Overview:
ImageStream Internet Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is a leading supplier of Linux routers and wide area network (WAN) cards. The company is a leading supplier of Linux-based LAN and WAN solutions for small offices, corporate LANs and WANs, and Internet backbone providers. ImageStream products include high-performance routers, network cards, and network management software. Targeting domestic and foreign governments, telecommunications/data communications companies and telecommunications suppliers, ImageStream strives to provide the industry's highest-performing, lowest-priced solutions for high-density T1/E1, DS3/E3, OC3, OC12 and OC48 routing applications. Customers include industry leaders such as Ericsson, the US Army, the US Navy, AT&T, and Cable & Wireless.

Business Challenge:
ImageStream was presented with a solution challenge when one of its large government customers running an advanced firewall and security application required a way to support virtual private network (VPN) tunneling, in addition to achieving wire-speed OC3 network performance. Ideally, the customer wanted to take OC3 and OC12 and convert that traffic to Gigabit Ethernet to connect to their security application, all without sacrificing performance. Proprietary network interface cards (NICs) didn't meet the small form factor requirements needed for limited chassis space, easy serviceability, and high performance.

Doug Hass, ImageStream's Chief Operations Officer and OEM Product Manager knew that due to the government customer's space requirements and desire to keep project costs down, they would need a more cost-effective solution than what two largest communications-equipment makers could provide. "We began to look for a high-performance, low-cost card that we could integrate with our own Linux router to provide a custom solution," said Hass. "We first tried our standard Tigon-2 chipset Gigabit Ethernet card. We put those cards into our chassis, but even with dual Intel processors and a high-speed backplane, the cards didn't provide the performance the customer required for their OC3 and OC12 applications. Until we found Alacritech, it seemed as if standard form-factor cards with the extremely high performance we required just didn't exist."

Hass searched the Web for an accelerated card that could effectively offload protocol processing. He came across an Alacritech press release not only touting the incredibly high performance and standard bus interface he sought. Hass called Alacritech on a Friday afternoon and by Monday had Alacritech Gigabit Accelerators installed.

Alacritech Solution and Benefits:
Based on the company's patented SLIC (Session Layer Interface Card) Technology, Alacritech server and storage accelerators are specifically designed to improve host processor efficiency, increase data throughput and reduce network latency. Alacritech accelerators use a custom ASIC, the Internet Protocol Processor (IPP), as the TCP/IP offload engine (TOE). The Alacritech-developed ASIC offloads network protocol processing from the host CPU to the adapter itself to achieve outstanding performance in servers and networks.

"We were able to take inexpensive cards and integrate them into our router line to create a solution that enabled us to drive more performance to the lower end of our product line," said Hass. "We tried other cards that had embedded OSes running on the card itself, but the cards were cost-prohibitive and generally did not meet our performance requirements. We found that Alacritech cards offload the processing in a way that allowed us to get the additional system resources we needed. We knew that we could get close to OC3, but we never imagined that we'd be able to get to OC12 in this base chassis. By simply replacing our existing cards with Alacritech accelerators, we were able to achieve not only wire-speed OC3, but had plenty of system resources available to reach wire-speed OC12. Our government customer is now getting 66% more performance than they achieved with our competitor's solution and at one-third the price."

OEM Benefits:
By utilizing Alacritech technology, ImageStream routers are not limited by an underperforming Gigabit Ethernet interface and therefore can enable wire-speed OC12, which puts the company in a unique position to unseat large competitors vying for the same customer base. "Our competitors are going in with $100,000 solutions and our $30,000 solutions using Alacritech boards have better performance - a 66% increase in this application - allowing our customers to use inexpensive, commodity off the shelf (COTS) products, but still enable advanced routing, quality of service and encrypted VPN connections, even at OC12 speeds," added Hass.

"ImageStream already provides extremely fast and efficient routers with incredible price/performance ratios. Leveraging Alacritech's technology, we can take a standard COTS product and provide maximum performance, even up to OC12 and OC48 speeds, in a less expensive configuration. In this application, using Alacritech boards meant we slashed our per-unit cost in half," added Hass."

ImageStream Industrial Series Routers discussed in case study:

» Enterprise Router (in custom cartridge for U.S. government application).
» Rebel Router
» Gateway Router
» Enterprise Router

For more information about ImageStream, please contact:
Doug Hass, OEM Product Manager
ImageStream Internet Solutions, Inc.
7900 East 8th RoadPlymouth, IN USA 46534
Tel: +1-574-935-8484