News Briefs - Networking:

Coyote Point Enables BigBuzz To Deliver High Availability

Coyote Point Systems announced the company's Equalizer application traffic management solution is helping BigBuzz, a business application developer, maintain a stable, manageable and cost effective network while ensuring customer satisfaction. Coyote Point helps the Long Island-based company fully utilize the company's existing network infrastructure and simplify its ability to maintain and manage its server farm. As a result, BigBuzz is able to successfully deliver excellent client service with 99.999 percent availability to its e-commerce clients whose success depends upon the websites hosted by BigBuzz. Additionally, BigBuzz has reduced overall IT costs and maximized precious datacenter real estate through the use of Coyote Point's Equalizer.

BigBuzz serves as designer and host to Web sites for clients such as http://www.FantasyFootballChamps.com. The company has been successful in launching hundreds of Web sites and online business applications for their clients both nationally and internationally. Despite BigBuzz's experience with Web hosting, network traffic had not been an issue for the company until a client's Web site was featured on television in 1999. BigBuzz was unprepared for the strain that was placed on its network as a result of a sudden surge in traffic, ultimately resulting in the site being inaccessible due to a traffic overload. Based on a strong recommendation from a colleague and their own technology evaluation, BigBuzz added Coyote Point's Equalizer E350 to load- balance its server farm and more intuitively route server requests. BigBuzz explored other application traffic management options but found other solutions lacked the flexibility and scalability requirements BigBuzz required, or could not deliver a proven return on investment.

"When the network overload occurred we realized the potential impact a network surge could have on not only our client's revenues and reputation, but our own as well," said Kevin Kelly, BigBuzz's president and CEO. "We had to move quickly and we felt the solution from Coyote Point was the best way to modernize our infrastructure without tremendous cost. We ultimately decided to implement Coyote Point's Equalizer E350 based on its compatibility, flexibility, manageability and value. Since implementing the Equalizer, BigBuzz has never had a Web site crash due to a network challenge and we've been able to expand our services without having to incur significant IT costs."

Over the past four years, BigBuzz has continued to grow, with clients spanning the globe. With the Coyote Point Equalizer in place, the company has been able to add a significant number of new customers while experiencing no drop in performance on its cluster of 25 servers. The Equalizer's sophisticated algorithm ensures that each request is automatically distributed to the server best equipped to handle the demand, thus using each server to its maximum potential without ever overloading the cluster.

"Before we purchased the Equalizer, we were worried we would have to add to our IT staff just to manage the box, like with other equipment we've purchased in the past. However, after the initial set up, the Equalizer has required almost no attention, and has been very easy to configure and maintain," added Kelly. "At BigBuzz, we design products that are easy to use and believe in keeping things simple. Coyote Point's strength is definitely in the simplicity of their products."