Systems/Enterprise:
KONTIKI ENHANCES ITS GRID DELIVERY
TECHNOLOGY
Kontiki announced enhancements to its industry-leading Grid Delivery
Technology that save companies over 90% in the cost of distributing video
and other digital media over their existing corporate networks and the
Internet.
Kontiki's technological advances -- as well as its new integration with key
Microsoft desktop and server products -- dramatically change the economics of
digital delivery for enterprises.
Kontiki's grid delivery software transforms a company's underutilized
servers,
personal computers and networking infrastructure into a network capable of
delivering videos, complex documents and software quickly and securely. The
breakthrough enhancements announced today give companies unprecedented cost
savings and network performance when sending digital content to users on
intranets, extranets and the Internet.
"The business case for rich media in the enterprise is compelling," said
Lawrence Orans, senior analyst at Gartner Inc. "Now, many of our clients are
investigating technologies that will allow them to distribute rich media
without causing network traffic jams or requiring substantial new
infrastructure investments. Enterprise-based grid delivery is an emerging
solution that enables the bandwidth-efficient distribution of rich media."
Kontiki said the significant savings are achieved by intelligent routing of
content through underutilized or inexpensive communication links, automatic
scheduling of deliveries for the most optimal time, employing technology to
eliminate failed deliveries and utilizing a grid of existing PCs and servers
as active nodes to relay content. These technologies reduce the cost of
digital delivery by more than 90%.
"Our customers are experiencing off-the-chart savings, with their costs
dropping over 90% from their traditional means of electronic distribution,"
said Mike Homer, Kontiki's CEO and founder. "It is now also more than 90% less
expensive to send digital media electronically than through traditional
physical CD shipments. Our technology has proven these savings at large scale,
with over 2.5 million users of the Kontiki Delivery Management System."
Kontiki announced the following enhancements to its grid technology:
- Grid Streaming, which enables video or audio to be streamed and optionally
saved for later use, adds additional flexibility for content providers and
users. This allows companies to offer an immediate playback option that is
also cost-effective for the first time.
- Grid Multicasting, which enables a single piece of content to be relayed
to
many users on a local network automatically, minimizing use and congestion on
expensive WAN links.
- Cost Optimized Routing enables customers to considerably cut bandwidth
costs by relying on the Kontiki Delivery Grid's ability to distinguish between
more and less expensive network links and route digital media at the lowest
overall cost. Since much of this less expensive bandwidth is available on
local area networks, use of more costly WAN links can be reduced by as much as
80%.
- User-Based Class of Service Controls, which allows enterprise IT to define
service levels for every user and group, enabling finer control over digital
media delivery costs.
"Using Kontiki's technology, our GameSpot and Download.com properties now
offer the Internet's biggest library of fast, free downloads to our users,"
said Vince Broady, senior vice president of consumer properties at CNET
Networks. "The Kontiki system helps keep bandwidth costs down so we can focus
on what's important -- delivering users the latest demos, trailers, patches
and software downloads."
"We are now using video much more extensively for training, support, and
marketing because we can deliver the materials online at a fraction of the
cost through Kontiki," said Ken Wirt, Palm Inc. Solutions Group senior vice
president of sales and marketing. "It used to cost us $4-8 each to create,
package and ship CDs or videotape, making it a major expense that we needed to
use sparingly. Now, it costs us just 25 cents to deliver the same information
to our sales team, partners and Palm customers, and the deliveries are
virtually instantaneous."
By integrating support for widely-used Microsoft desktop and server
products
into its Grid Delivery Technology, Kontiki has made it easy for corporate IT
departments to bring grid delivery into existing enterprise applications.
Doing so enables Microsoft customers to enhance applications such as content
management, sales training, customer and partner communications and Web-based
information delivery using digital media.
Kontiki is announcing integrated support for the following strategic
Microsoft
products:
- Embeddable Active X control, allowing integration with Internet Explorer
and Microsoft Outlook. This allows digital content such as videos to be
accessed and played right on Web pages or within applications without a
separate software download. This leads to broader usage, as well as reduced
support costs for IT departments.
- Integration of Microsoft's Windows Media Rights Manager to assure
protection of content delivered over the Kontiki network.
- Support for Microsoft Producer, allowing companies to more easily create
and distribute digital media presentations to those who need to see them.
- Full support for all Microsoft operating systems, including Windows 98,
Windows 2000, Windows NT and Windows XP.
- Integration with Microsoft's Content Management Server and other server
applications and content repositories. This integration, achieved through
Kontiki's XML Web Services Connector, makes it easier for companies to
efficiently and securely deliver content from their existing sales, marketing
or content management applications to decision makers who need the
information.
- Integration of Windows Media 9, enhancing scalable streaming of high-
quality video and increasing usage without corresponding new costs. Companies
using Windows Media 9 servers have integrated access to Kontiki's publishing,
security and control capabilities, offering a powerful combination of tools
for digital media distribution.
- Support for Windows Server 2003, Microsoft's flagship server offering to
be
unveiled next week, for highly-scalable Windows-based Grid Delivery
Servers.
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