Systems/Enterprise:
KONTIKI SOFTWARE ELIMINATES GRIDLOCK ON ENTERPRISE NETWORKS
Kontiki, a provider of Grid delivery solutions for high quality video,
software and digital content, announced that its Delivery Management System
(DMS) 4.0 is now available. The new software includes many enhancements that
lower total cost of ownership such as simplified deployment, support for the
Windows Server Platform and the flexibility to completely customize the user
experience depending on business needs.
Kontiki's DMS eliminates network gridlock by securely delivering high quality
video, software and other digital content to virtually any size audience at a
fraction of the cost of alternatives by efficiently utilizing existing
computing and network resources.
In a recent report, Gartner predicted that through 2008 enterprises will grow
their bandwidth use by 50 to 100 percent per year. Factors driving this demand
for network capacity include use of multimedia intranets, video
communications, frequency of software updates and an increase in mobile
workers. If companies do not respond to this demand for network capacity, the
threat of "gridlock" looms where WANs become overloaded, central servers fail
and critical communications cannot reach users.
"A top IT hurdle to enterprise adoption of video and digital media is the real
possibility of breaking the network," said Lawrence Orans, senior analyst at
Gartner. "Grid delivery provides a cost effective and elegant solution to this
problem by allowing companies to take advantage of existing computing and
network capacity to efficiently deliver large content files such as video and
software."
VeriSign Inc, a provider of intelligent infrastructure services for the
Internet and telecommunications networks, has been using Kontiki's software
for corporate communications for over two years and recently upgraded to DMS
4.0. "Before we started using Kontiki, we just couldn't take advantage of all
that video had to offer in improving communications to employees," said
Stratton Sclavos, VeriSign's president and CEO. "Now, we are able to deliver
timely video communications and critical large files to offices around the
globe while avoiding network congestion."
Kontiki's DMS software is built on the company's patent-pending Grid Delivery
Technology which eliminates delivery gridlock by efficiently utilizing idle
network and computing resources to lower delivery costs by 70 to 90 percent.
With the Delivery Management System 4.0, Kontiki is extending its leadership
in Grid delivery by further lowering total cost of ownership and greatly
increasing the customization options available for the user experience and
application integration. New features in 4.0 include:
- Even Lower IT Costs
- Deployment in one day -- Automated XML-based deployment manager
enables fast deployment of Kontiki servers.
- Gain the benefits of Grid delivery with 40 percent fewer servers --
The Kontiki DMS architecture has been simplified for easier and less
expensive operation with 40 percent fewer servers. This means that
companies will enjoy even greater hardware cost savings when using
Kontiki to deliver digital content across existing networks.
- Windows Server support -- IT now has the flexibility to deploy the
Kontiki DMS on the Windows Server platform. Kontiki also integrates
with several Windows technologies including Windows Media 9 Series and
Active Directory.
- Customization & Integration
- Complete user interface customization -- Companies have the
flexibility of developing custom interfaces for finding, obtaining and
using video. For example, media companies like CNET and AOL/Moviefone
have created branded desktop clients that can be used to easily obtain
high quality video content. Enterprises have integrated Kontiki into
their rich media portals to enable easy access to video content from
employees' browsers.
- Seamless application integration -- Enterprises also have the
flexibility of integrating Kontiki with their existing applications so
that they become Grid enabled. For example, a Fortune 100 technology
services company seamlessly integrated their software distribution
system with Kontiki to accelerate the speed of software updates while
reducing the number of servers and bandwidth normally required to
deliver the updates.
- Improved Business Solutions
- Improved business analysis -- Content delivery and usage reports
are now available in near real time, giving IT and business users
quick access to business results. IT can also view deliveries and use
by various groups such as specific geographies within an enterprise.
- Simplified publishing and collection management -- Publishing
content is now faster and it is easier to manage thousands of content
items.
"Our customers want to take full advantage of business video to communicate
mission-critical information and need to deliver large software updates
quickly and efficiently to all employees worldwide. Quite simply they cannot
afford network Gridlock," said Bryan Plug, Kontiki's CEO. "Kontiki's solution
makes it possible to use video and deliver software updates without having to
upgrade their network infrastructure with additional hardware and bandwidth."
Kontiki's Grid delivery technology is currently in use at Autodesk, CNET
Networks, Ernst & Young, Nextel, VeriSign and other major enterprise
organizations for a myriad of video and software delivery applications. The
use of Kontiki's worldwide Grid has now surpassed 18 million users.
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