Fireclick Upgrades Caching Software

After months of testing, Fireclick Inc. Monday said it has upgraded its
content delivery software to account for the theory that boosting download
speeds and scalability increases the amount of pages viewed by visitors.


Blueflame 2.0 combines Fireclick’s “next-most-likely-click” caching
technology with a revamped server side cache and Realtime Insite, an instant
Web management tool that tracks page views — all of which have been
packaged
with a few enhancements.


Blueflame’s modus operandi is to pre-download Web pages or page
elements to the user’s browser cache. By keeping one step ahead of the
user’s next mouse click, Blueflame reduces average download times and makes
sites as much as ten times faster.


With Realtime Insite, Fireclick has found a way to curb the number of
dead-end links as it reports to systems administrators who can make sure
that the business’s site is generating the hits it intended. Also, marketing
managers can use Realtime Insite’s intuitive interface to “see” site traffic
patterns while they happen, including most frequent back-button usage.


Michael Hoch, senior analyst at Aberdeen Group, said it is crucial for
businesses to win over customers though quality user experiences. Hoch said
Blueflame 2.0’s diagnostic abilities set it apart from the rest.


“While many suppliers are working to speed up various links of the content
delivery chain, few have integrated real-time diagnostics into their
products,” Hoch said. “Blueflame 2.0’s Realtime Insite feature empowers Web
masters and marketers to instantly evaluate their Web server’s performance.


Dwight Gibbs, spokesman for The Motley Fool, said Blueflame is cost
effective.


“The client-side caching makes the Fool site feel significantly faster while
the connection pooling on the back end decreases the load on our servers,”
Gibbs said.


Blueflame 2.0 software is offered on a service basis, with monthly fees
based on the amount of traffic accelerated by Blueflame 2.0, or through a
one-time license fee. Fireclick also offers a hosted version of the
Blueflame technology, Netflame.


At least a handful of investors have faith in Blueflame’s quest to be a top
caching and CDN provider. In a time when dot-com layoffs are at an all-time
high and venture capital is scarce, the firm managed to rustle up $13.5
million in its latest investment round from the likes of Cisco Systems Inc.,
along with previous investors Menlo Ventures and Atlas Venture.


The cash will help the firm grow to scale as well as help with the building
of alternative distribution channels.


Neal Goldman, director of Internet computing strategies at the Yankee Group,
said such CDNs are important players in the evolving Net economy because
“users want better performance, just as Web sites want better ways to scale
capacity.”

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