Belgium's Leading Newspapers Use Redline Networks Appliances to Boost Web Site Performance

Belgium's Leading Newspapers Use Redline Networks Appliances to Boost Web Site Performance

Redline Web I/O Processors Raise Visitor Numbers and Improve Download Times

Campbell, Calif., March 8, 2004 — S.A. IPM, one of Belgium's leading media publishing companies, has deployed Redline Networks Web I/O processors to substantially increase performance on the Web sites of the country's two leading national newspapers, La Derniere Heure (www.dhnet.be) and La Libre Belgique (www.lalibre.be).

Since installation of the Redline appliance, the number of site visitors has set records and page-download times have improved dramatically, due to the offloading of processing capacity from the existing Web servers and the reduction in bandwidth now needed to accommodate site traffic.

The Web sites for the La Derniere Heure and La Libre Belgique rank in the top five most-used French-language sites, with each receiving approximately 20,000 unique visitors per day. Previously the two sites were unable to support the increasing volume of site traffic and page hits that they were attracting. Due to a bottleneck created around the database server, where too many processes from the Apache Web servers would hit the database server simultaneously, response times slowed and limited site availability. To address this issue VAlain S.A., a Luxembourg-based Web development and consulting company, recommended Redline because of its multi-function platform and superior ROI.

Alain Fontaine, director of VAlain, said, "Redline offered a cost-effective and multi-function solution to address the Web site performance issues being faced by IPM. On the first Monday that the appliance was installed a new peak of unique visitors to both sites was reached because they were now able to cope with the heavy demand. Previously it would have taken a user about one minute to download a homepage from one of the sites. Now it takes five to seven seconds."

Patrick de Lannoy, multimedia manager at IPM, said, "We are delighted with the result and VAlain's recommendation of the Redline appliance. We can now deliver business continuity and performance for our online services at a fraction of the cost and effort that would have been incurred by using conventional solutions to provide the same results."

Paul Gracie, EMEA sales director at Redline Networks, said, "Working with IPM and VAlain we have been able to demonstrate the power and functionality of our appliances to handle bandwidth and performance issues even in the most demanding and extreme Web environments."

About IPM

S.A. IPM (IPM) is one of Belgium's leading media publishing companies and news organizations, publishing two of the country's leading newspapers, La Derniere Heure and La Libre Belgique. It also has a range of smaller newspapers and news Web sites.

About VAlain

VAlain S.A. is a technology consultancy and Web site developer. It specializes in solutions built around LAMP — Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP — and provides full Web site design, architecture and management services

About Redline Networks

Redline Networks designs and manufactures network appliances that maximize the performance, flexibility, and scalability of Web-enabled enterprise data centers. The company's family of E|X enterprise application processors, deployed at corporate data centers, and T|X Web I/O processors, used by Web sites, enable users to control and customize any HTTP-based environment while reducing infrastructure cost and complexity. Redline is a privately-held company based in Campbell, Calif. For more information on Redline and its products, visit http://www.RedlineNetworks.com.