Lakeview Launches MIMIX network1 IP Accelerators

Lakeview Technology scored a major coup today, when it announced the formation of an exclusive OEM agreement to resell Expand Networks‘ line of IP ACCELERATOR appliances in the data replication market. Lakeview has tweaked the devices, which already showed a special affinity for compressing OS/400 data streams, to allow further compression of its own MIMIX data replication software for OS/400, and the company says network1 users can expect to squeeze seven times as much MIMIX data through the same pipes.

Expand Networks’ IP ACCELERATOR devices use patented techniques to detect patterns in IP traffic at the byte-level. Instead of transmitting the entirety of these repetitious byte-level patterns, the devices cache the pattern in memory, and then send short identifiers that point out patterns to other ACCELERATOR devices on the network, which then reinsert the patterns into the data stream. The devices are programmed to regularly update their caches with the most recent patterns, allowing them to continually adapt to changing application needs; users say the devices “learn” to work efficiently.

For typical workloads, such as e-mail, FTP, or Web serving, IP ACCERLATOR users can expect to see bandwidth improvements of between 100 and 400 percent, Expand says. However, when OS/400 shops started running their data replication data streams through the stand-alone devices, they found they could regularly get 500 percent bandwidth improvements–and sometimes bursts of much more. Officials with OS/400 high availability software vendors, including Lakeview and DataMirror, say it appears that, for some reason, Expand Networks’ algorithms are extremely effective at compressing OS/400 journal streams.

Lakeview saw a market opportunity, and secured an exclusive OEM arrangement with the Roseland, New Jersey, company to sell IP ACCERLATORS, which Lakeview has rebranded MIMIX network1. The deal, which was made as part of Expand’s “Powered by Expand” OEM program, gives Lakeview the exclusive rights to resell these devices for data replication workloads around the world, including high availability applications for OS/400 and any other operating system, says Glenn VanBenschoten, Lakeview’s solution architect. Considering Lakeview’s recent acquisitions of Availant, which co-developed the High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing (HACMP) software for pSeries servers, and H.A. Technical Solutions, which sells data replication software for Unix and Linux, it was quite the score for the Chicago company.

MIMIX network1 devices will work with other OS/400 high availability applications besides MIMIX, but they won’t work as well as they will for MIMIX, VanBenschoten says. This is because Lakeview has made some changes to the devices that optimize data compression for the MIMIX data stream. “Through optimization done in the Expand device, specifically in the area of the size of the data cache, and the dictionary update frequency, we’ve gotten optimization rates up in the region of 7x,” VanBenschoten says.

Customers can benefit from MIMIX network1 in several ways. First, customers will be able to forgo, or delay, WAN upgrades. With T-1 lines, which carry 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth, going for about $1,500 per month or so, customers should be able to save a bundle by staving off network upgrades for months, if not years. Customers might also save money by eliminating some network links entirely, although VanBenschoten doubts many customers will do this, because of the typical company’s steadily rising bandwidth needs overall, and the time delay and hassle associated with getting new links up and running.

Alternatively, customers may choose to use MIMIX network1 to better prepare for a disaster, VanBenschoten says. “In an ideal world, the first thing the customer says is, ‘Replicate everything.’ But when you realize how much bandwidth you need . . . you would typically not replicate everything,” he says. “I think they’ll start replicating more [with MIMIX network1].’Now I’ve go the capacity, I can take that application that I made a business risk decision before not to replicate, and now I’ve got enough capacity, I can add that in.’ You can get better protection, at the same cost.”

E-mail and payroll are examples of applications that customers typically choose not to include in their initial MIMIX roll-out, a Lakeview official says. Other high availability software vendors say their customers often ease the bandwidth burden by leaving development work, or temporary files, out of the replication cycle. When bandwidth is no longer an issue for OS/400-based replication, a system administrator will find all kinds of application are good candidates for replication.

Lakeview says MIMIX network1 devices are currently available. VanBenschoten says the company is considering developing failover capabilities in the product, and selling them in bundles of two, so that if one device goes down, the second one can take over. Considering the mission-critical nature of MIMIX workloads, this is not a bad idea. This would double the number of devices used to accelerate data over one link to four, as one compression device needs to be installed on each side of a network connection.

Pricing for MIMIX network1 has not yet been released, but the company says it plans to sell the devices, which fit in standard racks and take up 2U of space, based on the amount of bandwidth its customers need. Expand offers a range of IP ACCELERATORS, including the 1800 Series, which cost about $2,000 and can handle up to 128 Kbps, at the low-end, and the new System 9000, which costs $65,000 and can handle up to 200 Mbps, at the high end. Lakeview officials say there may be a premium for its product due to the optimization work done for the MIMIX data stream. For more information, go to www.lakeviewtech.com.