Equiinet is now the clear market leader, and that's not just on the strength of CachePilot alone, it's also down to our ability to react quickly to requests from teachers, LEAs and RBCs. Here are some of the most recent enhancements to CachePilot:
-
Future proofing using Cisco CDN protocols
-
Integration with Microsoft Active Directories
-
Support for Becta-compliant XML manifest lists
-
Real Proxy* for streaming media
-
Transparency techniques provide added resilience benefits
-
Journaling to speed up system start up time
-
Improved caching throughput - independently tested
-
New higher capacity CachePilot Plus and Max version
-
Auto-Updating - get the latest software hassle free
Future proof Content Delivery Networks(CDN) with Cisco/Equiinet partnership
Content deployment is key to the future of caching systems. Thinking beyond the current Becta Specification for caches - to gives schools a future proof solution - Cisco and Equiinet have partnered to offer the next generation capabilities. Equiinet are integrating Cisco's world leading CDN protocols into the CachePilot. This will allow Cisco equipment located in local, regional or national educational network infrastructures to interoperate with CachePilots in individual schools. This will ensure equipment being deployed today truly keeps pace with evolving e-learning requirements.
Integration with Microsoft Active Directories - enabling synchronisation with existing schools' authentication databases
User names and passwords of individual pupils no longer need to be added directly to CachePilot as it can now authenticate against a Windows 2003 or Windows 2000 server configured with Active Directories. Once authentication has occurred the user's Internet access profile is automatically and transparently used in conjunction with the schools' filtering service to ensure only suitable content is accessible.
Support for Becta-compliant XML manifest lists enhances further what is already the most comprehensive support for content management controls
CachePilot supports all the manifest lists formats and mechanisms of all the leading e-learning content providers - something which clearly differentiates the Equiinet product from any of its competitors. CachePilot now also supports a Becta-compliant XML manifest list. This has been integrated with our automatic update mechanism as used for pre-caching, which enables the extra flexibility of the source manifest list to be updated and implemented at a specified time each day, or at a daily or weekly specified time.
Real Proxy* for streaming media
Even though the BBC has recently released its own streaming CODEC to the public domain, which will soon result in free Open Source video streaming engines, there is still a perceived need for the Real Proxy. We have therefore integrated the full Real Helix Proxy Server into CachePilot. This allows streaming media based on RealNetworks' technologies to be streamed directly from CachePilot to multiple users in the school.
For more information on the new BBC CODEC see the links above.
Transparency techniques provide added resilience benefits
For those with Cisco routers in their network infrastructure we have implemented the protocol WCCP (Web Cache Coordination Protocol). This enables the Cisco router to choose which CachePilot to service browsing requests if load sharing is required or in the case of a cache or network failure.
Equiinet has additionally enhanced its support of PAC (Proxy Automatic Configuration) files by additionally introducing WPAD (Web Proxy Auto Discovery). Put simply - the PC browser can run a script which tests if the preferred cache is up and if it is not available it switches to an alternative backup cache.
The bottom line on all these acronyms is that network configuration is simpler, CachePilot has excellent resilience options, and in operation this all occurs transparently as far as the user is concerned.
Journaling to speed up system start up time
A new file journaling system has been introduced which allows an almost immediate recovery of CachePilot after an unscheduled power cut. We were always confident in our recovery mechanism after such a situation but it could take up to 20 minutes to check a fully populated 200 Gigabyte drive. With the new journaling system, however, the unit is up and running again after less than two minutes - regardless of the amount of content loaded.
Improved caching throughput - independently tested
Equiinet's ongoing development to improve caching software performance and efficiency, along with the new hardware technologies being used, has resulted in yet another leap forward in caching performance. An independent survey of UK caching products recently carried out has shown the new CachePilot to have a peak throughput of over 1000 transactions per second.
New higher capacity CachePilot Plus and Max version
For bigger schools and colleges Equiinet has introduced two new higher capacity CachePilot models. CachePilot Plus manages to offer twice the performance of
the original CachePilot making it ideal for larger primary or smaller secondary schools.The new unit can be
ordered with a single 250 Gigabyte disk
or additionally equipped with a second
drive providing a further 250 Gigabytes of
storage.
CachePilot Max is the new top of the range product
offering for secondary schools and colleges.
It is available as rack mountable 2u unit.
Auto-update mechanism of CachePilot units
CachePilot units can be kept up to date automatically. As new operating system software becomes available automatic (encrypted) downloads* over the Internet can be utilised as part of a software upgrade licence - so each and every school has the latest features. This saves school ICT and LEA staff large amounts of time and effort trying to coordinate this activity - and fiddling around with CDs is a thing of the past. Our content provider partners also keep their content fresh by using similar facilities on CachePilot. So successful is this mechanism there are now literally thousands of units online employing this update technology.
*Licence fee payable
|
