Cisco Launching Ambitious Web Project
Cisco Systems will announce today the creation of an ambitious Internet network that it hopes will raise awareness not only about worldwide poverty, but also about the company’s ability to build complex data networks that are as reliable as today’s phone systems.
The network, which Cisco says can handle 10 times the record-breaking online traffic generated during the 1996 Olympics, will operate as the backbone for a new anti-poverty Web site sponsored by Cisco, the United Nations Development Programme, consulting firm KPMG International and Internet services company Akamai Technologies.
The system is a risk for Cisco and its partners, who could wind up with egg on their face if the site goes down Oct. 9, when the group plans to promote the new venture with three overlapping rock concerts that will be streamed live on the site at https://www.netaid.org.
A number of companies, including Victoria’s Secret, EBay and E-Trade Group, have incurred customer wrath when technical glitches caused their sites to crash.
But analysts say even if Cisco experiences a network problem, the effort will be a good way for the world’s leading provider of equipment that runs the Internet to showcase what it can do for companies that it hopes will use its systems.
“They’re building something here that can take a similar kind of load to the telecom infrastructure on Mother’s Day,” said Patrick Houghton, a senior vice president and group head of technology research at Sutro & Co. “If they can make it work it would be an incredible coup for Cisco.”
Cisco’s network is designed to handle 60 million hits an hour and was created by the partners in just five months. The network’s ability to stream audio and video--with technology managed by Real Networks--is 10 times greater than any previous Webcast, Cisco says.
The company hopes to avoid network outages that often occur when companies fail to provide sufficient data lines to transmit traffic to servers and enough capacity at the server once users get there, said Junaid Islam, a group manager for Cisco’s service provider architecture unit.
It will do so by relying on its partners’ strengths, Islam said. Cisco and its partners have scattered servers geographically around key traffic areas, allowing them to shuttle traffic from one server to another if there’s a bottleneck, Islam said.
Akamai’s servers will handle the graphics portion of the site, while Cisco’s servers will host the text, in an effort to prevent the excruciating download times that surfers often experience at popular sites, Islam said. KPMG is designing and building the site itself and creating its e-commerce infrastructure.
The partners hope the site, which will launch Sept. 8, raise money to help about 1 billion people worldwide who live on less than $1 a day and also increase volunteerism. The site will also feature chat, classifieds that will match resources and needs, and links to anti-poverty organizations.
The Oct. 9 concerts, to be held in New York, London and Geneva, will feature musicians Bush, the Counting Crows, Bono and Jewel, among others. Viewers who watch the concerts on VH1 or MTV will be encouraged to visit the Web site for video feeds of what’s happening backstage and for more information on poverty issues.
