Seattle-based F5 has been around since 1996 and sells a variety of appliance for everything from load balancing to application firewalls to cloud storage. LineRate is a Boulder, Colo.-based company that launched with $5.4 million in funding in 2012 and wants to help companies scale their network services using software so they can handle more web traffic. Here’s how GigaOM’s Stacey Higginbotham described LineRate’s technology when covering its launch:

“The LineRate software, which was developed at the University of Colorado, works on machines running both network-specific chips and x86-based silicon. This means someone could deploy LineRate’s software to deliver network services on top of Intel boxes or on top of gear using network processors. …

“LineRate’s operating system accelerates the way networking messages are passed through from one server to another, which is why it thinks it can speed up network services even on x86-based chips, which historically have been too slow to handle the real-time world of network services. The software is also massively multitenant, supporting up to 4,000 virtual machines located on one server. This serves cloud clients today, but also presages a future when servers get more cores and capabilities that will allow them to support more virtual machines.”

An F5 Big-IP appliance

Of course, as Stacey also pointed out, SDN startups like LineRate exist in part to disrupt the decades-old hardware-based model of network management that companies such as F5 exemplify. By acquiring LineRate, F5 gets to dip a toe into the future for its webscale customers (one of LineRate’s early customers, for example, is PhotoBucket) while still keeping its appliance on hand for the old guard. Over time, like so many other network vendors, it seems logical that F5 will transition into a company whose hardware is, buy and large, a commoditized delivery medium for its smart network-management software.

Both companies involved are stressing the importance of this acquisition at the application level, where F5 makes its money, as opposed to up the OSI stack where many other SDN products play. In a press release announcing the purchase, LineRate Co-founder and Chief Software Architect Manish Vachharajani is quoted as saying, “We recognize that the SDN fabric may be good at layer 2-4, but ultimately customers care most about the applications.”

Feature image courtesy of Shutterstock user macka.

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Update: Here’s a taste of Cedexis’ dashboard showing cloud provider stats:

Cedexis was founded in 2009 by two Akamai veterans to help businesses choose the best clouds and CDNs for their needs on a dynamic basis. If there’s an outage or slowdown on one cloud, the Cedexis service can move that workload elsewhere. One customer saw 40 percent page-load improvement just by using Cedexis for network optimization — and this was a sophisticated customer that was already using advanced cloud and CDN technologies, said Cedexis co-founder Julien Coulon.

For the report, Cedexis collects data from a few hundred customers that embed a piece of JavaScript code on their websites. Cedexis aggregates data  ”about the performance, errors, throughputs from every network in the world, putting it out in a way to help them choose which [cloud or CDN] they should work with,” Coulon said via phone from the company’s Paris office. “This is real data from real end users who need to see what’s happening. And we’re doing this transparently in a way that helps the cloud and CDN providers improve their quality of service.”

“No provider is good everywhere, all the time, for all users, but if you mix them right you can get significant improvement in your web site performance,” Coulon said.

Cedexis sells its service to large content providers, including French media companies Canal+ and FranceTelevisions and luxury consumer products makers Dior and Piaget. U.S.-based customers include Mozilla. On the monitoring side, Cedexis competes with Compuware’s Gomez  and Keynote Systems. On the network load-balancing side, it vies with companies like F5 Networks.

Amazon is the cloud giant that most companies evaluate when they want to make a move, but the company doesn’t provide a ton of insight into its inner workings.  While some might think that Amazon and Akamai, the CDN leader, might take umbrage to  statistics that might show them in a less-than-stellar light, tools like this could also help them to improve their services. Amazon, which suffered a serious outage last year which Cedexis profiled here, might also welcome the opportunity to show more about its performance, going forward, as more competition from the OpenStack players comes online.

Update: And with that, here’s another taste of the Cedexis data, this time on CDNs:

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Meet the Contenders

Since the iPhone apps have some built-in advantages, I chose four programs that work with GPS devices, heart rate monitors or other accessories – such as the Nike + iPod kit – to even the playing field.

Garmin Training Center
Maker: Garmin
Price: Free
Compatibily: OS X 10.4+/Universal
Hardware Support: Garmin GPS

rubiTrack
Maker: toolsfactory
Price: $39.00
Compatibily: OS X 10.5+/Universal
Hardware Support: Garmin GPS, Nike+iPod, Amod GPS

Ascent
Maker: Montebello
Price: $40.00
Compatibily: OS X 10.4+/Universal
Hardware Support: Garmin GPS

TrailRunner
Maker: Berbie
Price: Free
Compatibily: OS X 10.5+/Universal
Hardware Support: Garmin GPS, Nike+iPod/Sportband, iPhone/iPod

NOTE: Real world workout data from Garmin and Nike+ devices were used in testing all four applications.

Garmin: Late to the Gate, Still in the Running

First up is Garmin’s flagship OS X offering. Fitness Center for Mac (GTC) is designed to be the way to get data from your Edge or Forerunner onto your Mac, and both device families offer GPS-tracking and optional heart rate monitoring, with the Edge also featuring cadence & power tracking for cyclists. The sampling from these sensors can be imported, reviewed and displayed in tabluar, graphical and cartographical format. GTC does a good job figuring out which activity (cycling or running) you were engaged in when it auto-classifies your imports.

You can customize user profile settings, including heart rate data and speed zones along with gear details and information on other activities, such as hiking, skiing or kayaking.

Workouts can be reviewed by date or type, and you can schedule, group and categorize them via recorded sessions or from various online sources. Any workout you define or find can also be uploaded to most Garmin devices.

If you have full Garmin map data sets, you can use other Garmin Mac utilities to get them onto your Mac (which will help GTC route maps look a bit nicer).

GTC will import and export TCX (a Garmin-originated XML format describing GPS and “fitness” data) files which many programs and web applications can work with, so you are not locked-in to them by any means.

Striving for Peak Performance with Ascent

While Garmin may be a bit generic, Ascent definitely has the feel of a more seasoned OS X application.

Most of these fitness-tracking programs provide a similarly paned “browser” to access your activities. Ascent kicks up the visual display a bit with map data from either VisualEarth or USGS, both of which have multiple feature display options.

Ascent provides more fields to describe your activities and has an amazing replay mode that will animate your recorded workout, showing key data in a “HUD” as the points move along. While it will sync from your GPS device with ease, the Montebello developers also added a wide assortment of import and export options, including reading data from Polar heart rate monitors, full manual entry of activity information and sending data out to Google Earth for a very spiffy fly-by.

Unfortunately, while the program provides many ways to view and analyze your workouts, you will not be using it to push data to your GPS.

TrailRunner Charts Your Path to Fitness

This once commercial offering is now free and takes a unique approach to tracking your training. As the name indicates, it is geared more for running, but can handle other activities.

If you are truly dedicated to your training program, TrailRunner will be a great digital partner and includes a highly-detailed diary view (that lets you post activities right to your blog) and an “event planner” (for that upcoming marathon).

TrailRunner also has a playback mode, but the most differentiating feature may be the ability to easily share your routes with other athletes and also find new routes (i.e. escape the rut). It also works with iTrail (for you iPhone-wielding fitness geeks) and can store routes notes and route “snapshots” to your photo-enabled iPod, which is especially helpful if you are racing un-tracked or with a non-GPS-enabled device (such as the Nike+ iPod kit).

To get the full feel for TrailRunner, you really need to download it and play with it a while. New features keep popping up as you explore the application and it will definitely have you looking at your workouts in a very different way.

One Step Ahead: rubiTrack Tracks With Style

Despite having a Leopard-only offering, the talented folks over at toolsfactory managed to make the most modern, Mac-like program of the bunch, which is evident right from program launch.

Map data crisp and the view options are abundant. One feature detail that I considered truly innovative was historical weight tracking, making the workout details very accurate over time.

Activities are auto-grouped by category on import and can be manually tweaked. rubiTrack also has “smart groups” (think iTunes Smart Playlists) which can auto-classify by any combination of activity details.

While it lets you review past workouts and activities, you will not be able to schedule a workout routine with this application and you will not be creating tracks to bring back to your training devices.

The Final Analysis

GTC is the least “Mac-like” application out of the four and is not even on equal footing from its PC counterpart. While it is completely functional for basic operations, it is obvious that Garmin wants you to continue to invest in their online offerings and map products to get the most out of your fitness routine. However, if you want to plan new workouts and have seamless integration with your GPS devices, GTC will have a place in your Applications folder.

Ascent was my primary tracking tool prior to rubiTrack (I paid for both programs). I would definitely pay for an upgrade if they keep enhancing both the visual elements and the core feature sets. It is also very geared towards cyclists and I expect enhancements to continue that focus.

TrailRunner is a must have for the avid runner. It does rely on many helper apps (including GTC) to import data. The blogging feature is something I wish more fitness apps thought to include. TrailRunner also has the most diverse maps and is perfect for those who wish to be part of a community of folks interested in fitness.

At the end of a ride, however, rubiTrack is the application that I fire up first. If you are just getting into a fitness routine and want some positive, visual reinforcement this will be a very easy program to get started with and will definitely help motivate you to constantly do better.

Despite all four applications being “made for Mac”, none of them auto-sync weather details and none of the ones with workout scheduling capabilities integrate with iCal. Even with those missing features, you now have no excuse to shake off that tryptophan haze and shed some of that holiday poundage. If you do receive Garmin or Nike+ gear for the upcoming gift-giving season, definitely give these programs a workout.

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• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
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1. The living room is on the horizon. And Netflix stands ready to capitalize on it. CEO Reed Hastings won us over by being engaged, enthusiastic and realistic about Netflix’s role in our home entertainment near-future. He described the current living room streaming environment, in which sites and devices come up with case-by-case solutions for publishing video, as a “brute force approach,” and instead proposed that a browser run directly on a TV. He also said, as only a guy comfortable in his subscription service skin could, “Everything that can be ad-supported, will be ad-supported.” Netflix has a lot of competition, but its mix of subscription pricing and multiple hardware deals so far makes it our best bet to get it right. (Keynote video embedded above.)

2. The audience has evolved. Canoe Ventures CEO David Verklin showed up with a punchy call-to-arms, urging us not to count out the cable industry. But cable’s grand plan for our future (interactive voting with your remote) seems awfully traditional for a forward-thinking industry. Regardless, our audience clearly knew where their bread was buttered — Verklin rivaled Jason Kilar and Lucas Cruikshank (aka “Fred”) for biggest backstage hallway crowd. (Video still to come on this one; it didn’t get archived due to a glitch so we’ve got to digitize it again.)

3. New media startups are fading. Though our audience was a great cross-section of the industry, one group that was missing was the new media mogul set. Preoccupied with layoffs and keeping the doors open without fresh funding, the web video portals, ad technology shops, and online studios were flying so far below the radar this year that we suspect a bigger, more industry-specific shakeout may already be underway.

4. Participatory and multiplatform elements of shows are moving from their nerdy roots (Heroes and Lost) to the mainstream (CSI and Ugly Betty). Even Anthony E. Zuiker, creator of CSI, doesn’t think you can just tell a story on TV any more. He echoed former Heroes writer Jesse Alexander and his panelmates on the need to engage audiences on broadband and mobile platforms and in their real-world lives.

5. Indie stars can still be made. The doors are more open than closed for people who can master the medium and make compelling content. Lucas Cruikshank, who plays the 6-year-old Fred, was by far the most popular guy at the show, mobbed from morning to night. He launched his show only six months ago on YouTube and is already its No. 1 most-subscribed producer. (Cruikshank’s show-stopping interview with Chris Albrecht is embedded above.)

6. Web stars still aren’t crossing over to mainstream success, but they’re doing pretty well for themselves. Michael Buckley told us he’s making more than he ever imagined. Boing Boing TV has been profitable since day 1. Cruikshank’s popularity makes clear just how well he’s doing. Felicia Day says she’s about to announce a fantastic new sponsorship deal for The Guild. But these names don’t ring a bell for any of the muggles I told about the conference this weekend (only my sister knew about Cruikshank’s Fred, and that’s because she read about it on NewTeeVee).

7. Success is on its way, if we can only figure out how to define it. Speakers were frustratingly shy about naming their CPMs or quantifying revenues in any way (the zipped lips on CPMs actually became a recurring joke among attendees as the day went on). On the other hand, while Hulu CEO Jason Kilar was busy charming everyone he met at the show, an interesting phenomenon throughout the day was the referencing of Hulu as a bona fide hit service. Our VC panel pontificated about who could be the next Google, Facebook or Hulu. Guess that’s how you know you’ve made it!

8. Nobody’s worried about the big, bad bandwidth caps. Everybody hates bandwidth caps, but they don’t seem to think they’re a big deal. From our infrastructure panel to our hallway chatter, the message was the same: No Chicken Littles here. Is that naive?

9. The logistics of bringing premium content to the web haven’t exactly been smoothed out yet. Netflix’s Hastings estimated only 15 percent of premium content is currently online, but the details and power struggles are finally getting resolved, and usage is zooming upwards. For an excellent discussion of the relevant issues, see Mugs Buckley’s FOX-Fancast-Scripps-YouTube-Accenture panel (video embedded above).

10. Live-streaming still needs a lot of work. Not to sound ungrateful to our streaming sponsors at Ustream, but it was frustrating that we couldn’t deliver a high-quality, reliable, non-auto-playing stream of our conference. We’ve worked with a number of different partners for our events and there’s always some snafu or important feature missing.

Bonus: 11. People really love this business, economy be damned. Everyone had their collective eyes on the prize, and the bigger financial picture didn’t seem to matter. Maybe that’s delusion, but it also might be the best approach to take during hard times.

With much help from Chris Albrecht and a spoonful of salt from Om Malik.

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Much of this is a pre-emptive strike at Microsoft’s upcoming cloud offering. Microsoft has a huge advantage: It owns the stack from OS and virtual machine through to application. Amazon wants to compete on reliability and performance, rather than software suites and licensing. But there are still some things missing before enterprises will really embrace it.

Back in May, most of the people we asked were more likely to trust Amazon than Microsoft with their enterprise applications. But while enterprise customers are using Amazon already, in many cases that use is limited to a department or a short-term project. If Amazon wants to capture entire IT departments, it needs to prove it’s as good or better than in-house infrastructure. And that means delivering responsive, highly available applications, not just an SLA.

To accomplish this, Amazon needs to tackle performance and availability at an architectural level. When companies build their own applications, they rely on building blocks like load-balancing, WAN acceleration, managed DNS and redundant data centers. Fortunately, this is where much of Amazon’s roadmap leads.

• Network performance: Amazon’s CDN will get static content closer to users. With availability zones, Amazon can also get computation near the edge. All of this reduces the time it takes to deliver bits to users. But it can be faster still: Modern enterprises squeeze every millisecond out of the network. Amazon should also add route optimization, HTTP and TCP optimization to really address network delay.


Amazon's plans for integrated scaling, monitoring, and load balancing in EC2

• Processing performance: Internet architects improve server performance with load-balancing. First send the request to the fastest data center, then send it to the fastest machine in that data center. If there aren’t any fast machines, the newly announced dynamic scaling will make new ones. All that’s missing (though hinted at) is the ability to measure user experience so EC2 knows when to add new servers. Amazon needs a complete load balancing/monitoring/scaling strategy — with proper controls so IT staff can manage it — to make elastic computing a reality. While they’re at it, a performance SLA would be great, too.
• Network availability: Those same load balancing technologies improve uptime, using DNS or BGP to bypass unreachable data centers. Amazon needs to launch a SimpleDNS service, tied to availability zones and performance, that gives operators more control. It’s going to have to deal with DNS when it launches its CDN anyway. This looks less like managed DNS (Amazon uses UltraDNS already) and more like products from F5, Citrix or others. Amazon also needs to open up about its carriers and peering arrangements for enterprises to feel comfortable.
• Processing availability: Big Internet sites don’t achieve high uptime with machines that always work. Instead, they monitor for failure and then have the load balancers take out bad servers. That way, overall availability can be high, even when individual components are broken. Amazon should add load testing and profiling capabilities – particularly since EC2 doesn’t give users deep visibility into the platform — to ensure that applications work worldwide under stress.

As Amazon CTO Werner Vogels pointed out, enterprises like cloud computing for its economics, its elastic capacity and its ability to deliver high reliability. With this roadmap, Amazon goes after Microsoft’s weak spots. But it’s not there yet.

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BCS CEO Brian NeSmith gives a laundry list of reasons why he is buying Packeteer in this press release. In short, this is about WAN market consolidation, as I had outlined in my previous post. The two companies together have about 35 percent of the WAN optimization market, putting them ahead of Riverbed and Cisco Systems. According to some industry insiders, Riverbed is a likely buyout candidate.

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The interest in Packeteer comes on the heels of a hostile takeover bid from investment firm Elliott Associates, which already has a 9.8 percent stake in the company. Elliott offered $5.50 a share for Packeteer, valuing it at $200.8 million, but the WAN company thinks it’s worth more, apparently more like $7-$8 a share. As it noted in a press release in which it rejected Elliott’s offer:

If the Company’s operating plan for fiscal 2008 is achieved, the Board believes that the Company’s stand-alone operations will produce significantly greater value for the stockholders than that provided by the Elliott tender offer.

The frenetic jostling over Packeteer is a sign of impending consolidation in the WAN optimization chunk of the networking food chain. WAN optimization products help accelerate the delivery of enterprise applications that are accessed over the Internet. Riverbed (RVBD), F5 Networks (FFIV), Blue Coat and Packeteer are some of the more well-known known players in the space, but they’re all small and are competing with larger vendors like Juniper Networks and Cisco Systems.

The accompanying graph, however, shows that no vendor is in dominant position. The presence of such a large number of vendors is starting to play havoc on the profitability of these companies.

Timeline of Packeteer takeover bid:

* March 5: Two hedge funds controlled by Elliott Associates make a friendly bid for Packeteer offering a 42 percent premium to its March 4 closing price.
* March 20: Elliot turned hostile and offered $5.50 a share, a premium of mere 6 percent on Packeteer’s closing price on March 19.
* April 1: Packeteer tells Elliott to take a hike (press release).
* April 16: Elliott offer expired.

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