Los Altos, Calif., December 13, 2002 – Internet Research Group (IRG) of Los Altos, California announced the publication of their updated market report on products and services that optimize the use of multiple network services providers.

"Given the distressed state of the telecommunications industry as a whole, it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that this market has proven challenging over the last year" noted Peter Christy, co-founder of IRG and co-author of the report. "But there were bright lights among the gloom, as the very uncertainty of some of the largest network providers such as WorldCom created a compelling reason for network users to examine these products and services as a way to insure against the catastrophic loss of network services due to either technical or financial causes."

The updated study, titled The Imperative For Business Optimized Networks; Thriving in an uncertain, multi-provider world, details the application and business impact of the first year of product sales, updates the in-depth look at the enabling technology, as well as the set of suppliers of BGP multi-homed products.

This evolving category of products and services—serving what IRG calls Business Optimized Networks—attracted $59 million of venture investment in 2002, according to IRG principal, John Katsaros. "Clearly investors still hold high expectations for this category despite the challenges of this difficult beginning, as the Internet increasingly becomes an essential business tool connected through a federation of many autonomous, interconnected networks."

The 80-page revised and expanded study—which includes an in-depth analysis of the primary vendors — goes on to explain that the functionality of these products begins with tools to simplify and automate the concurrent use of multiple network providers, a process called multi-homing. Vendors then offer a diverse set of functions and services, all aimed at improving overall network performance. The business benefits offered by these products include improved network availability, network performance and service monitoring, performance improvement, and significant cost savings.

The Imperative of Business Optimized Networks further details the market opportunity and its potential to impact companies producing products and services in this space. Included in the study are complete profiles on Arbor Networks, F5, Internap, netVMG, Opnix, Proficient Networks, RADware, Route Science and Sockeye Networks."

Internet Research Group provides marketing and strategy research reports and consulting services, specializing in areas related to Internet infrastructure. www.irg-intl.com.

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About Internet Research Group

Internet Research Group provides marketing and strategy research reports and consulting services, specializing in areas related to Internet infrastructure. IRG offerings combine the formidable and unique experience and perspective of the two principals: John Katsaros and Peter Christy. IRG’s mission is to help major Internet technology vendors and market-leading startups make faster and better decisions about their product, market entry, and market development strategies. IRG provides technical product and market analyses, develops authoritative reports on specific markets, and creates white papers and other information products. IRG’s consulting practice helps companies develop successful market entry and development strategies for new products in early adopter markets.

Editor’s note: Peter Christy and John Katsaros are always available to provide quotes or references for articles related to Internet acceleration, content delivery and distribution, caching, or Internet traffic management. For further information, contact: