Novell® BorderManager FastCache™ Eliminates "World Wide Wait"

Cost-Effective Easy To Use Performance Solution Speeds User Access to Web Content

NEW YORK CITY, New York -- September 17, 1997 -- Novell, Inc. today pushed the pedal down harder on the Internet with BorderManager FastCache™, a cost-effective and easy-to-use software package that delivers Web-based content to users 10 to 200 times faster than traditional Web access methods. This new addition to the Novell BorderManager family is rated at over 4,000 active connections per second -- four to ten times more scalable than any competing cache product -- and can service an unlimited number of Web users.

Running on industry-standard Intel processor-based hardware and compatible with existing Novell, UNIX, and NT networks, BorderManager FastCache provides organizations of every kind and size with a low-cost solution for fast Internet access and improved productivity. Customers can install and immediately recognize the FastCache performance benefits in under 15 minutes. BorderManager FastCache also enables businesses and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to improve customer service by dramatically boosting the performance and responsiveness of their hosted Web sites.

"BorderManager FastCache eliminates the unnecessary wait for students and instructors to download information from the World Wide Web," said Fred Towery, Computer Information Systems Instructor at San Jacinto College in Houston, TX. "With the Web acceleration in BorderManager FastCache, enhanced performance is visible to the naked eye. It's great."

"As businesses increase their use of the Internet as a productivity tool for employees, performance delays in accessing critical web based information have become a challenge," said Michelle Arden, vice president of Novell's Border Services Group. "Instead of purchasing more expensive hardware or upgrading costly bandwidth, BorderManager FastCache provides a high performance, scalable caching solution for businesses to deliver web based content to their employees."

"We congratulate Novell on being able to deliver unprecedented Internet cache scalability with BorderManager FastCache on the Pentium Pro architecture," said John Miner, vice president and general manager, Enterprise Server Group, Intel Corporation. "This demonstrates the capabilities of combining BorderManager and the Intel architecture for delivering an incredible Web accelerator solution."

"Novell's BorderManager FastCache helps reduce the productivity delays caused by slow access to the Web and Internet content, turning the 'World Wide Wait' into a productive World Wide Web," said Ronnie Ward, vice president and general manager, Enterprise Solutions Division for Compaq Computer Corporation. "BorderManager FastCache on Compaq industry-leading server platforms allows customers to confidently transform Web technologies into a real business advantage."

BorderManager FastCache Configurations

• Configured as a proxy cache, BorderManager FastCache creates a shared network cache to speed access to Web content and improve end-user productivity. By bringing Web information closer to intranet users, FastCache reduces the traffic on expensive intranet WAN links and Internet connections by eliminating redundant requests. When FastCache intranet users request Web content from its shared cache, web pages load 10 to 200 times faster than those requested over long-haul connections to the Internet.
• Configured within a cache hierarchy, BorderManager FastCache works in concert with other BorderManager caches to move shared content closer to users. In this environment, an unlimited number of BorderManager caches and users can cooperate using the Industry-standard Internet Cache Protocol (ICP) to speed access to shared content and eliminate redundant Web server requests within an intranet and on the Internet.
• Configured as a Web server accelerator, BorderManager FastCache dramatically improves the performance of a Web site by caching the Web server's content and responding to requests directly out of its shared cache. Web server acceleration provides up to 10 times the performance of traditional Web servers and can offload up to 99 percent of a web server's workload using inexpensive Intel-architecture servers.

Availability

BorderManager FastCache includes the identical caching engine and the connectivity functionality of the IPX/IP gateway available in the complete BorderManager product delivered last month. BorderManager FastCache will be available in November 1997. Pricing has not been announced.

About Novell BorderManager

Novell BorderManager is the industry's first integrated family of directory-based network services that manages, secures and accelerates user access to information at every network border -- the point where any two networks meet. Novell BorderManager includes firewall filtering, user level access control, virtual private networking, address translation, routing, and remote access services. For more information on the Novell BorderManager family of products, please visit www.novell.com/bordermanager.

About Novell

Founded in 1983, Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) is the world's leading provider of network software. The company offers a wide range of network solutions for distributed network, Internet/intranet and small- business markets, as well as the network computing industry's most comprehensive education and technical support programs. Information about Novell and its complete range of products and services can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com.

Novell is a registered trademark and Novell Directory Services and NDS are trademarks of Novell, Inc. All other registered trademarks and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

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