Rulespace Solutions

Internet Companies Complete Draft of Standards-Based Protocol for Delivering e-Services

On: 2000-03-20 11:33:13

ICAP to Enable Application Services for Future Network Platforms

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- March 20, 2000 - The ICAP Forum of leading Internet companies today announced the completion of the first draft of a protocol aimed at enabling Internet e-services.

The new protocol, Internet Content Adaptation Protocol (ICAP), leverages the Internet's infrastructure and increases the intelligence and flexibility of networks. ICAP will be submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF) Web Replication and Caching (WREC) working group as an Internet draft at the next WREC meeting. The proposed standard allows enterprises, content providers and ISPs to seamlessly conduct e-services such as Web page reformatting, targeted Web advertising, virus scanning, content filtering, data compression and language translation from any Internet access device.

The ICAP Forum is hosted by Akamai Technologies and Network Appliance, and is joined by leading Internet companies including content delivery service providers, application developers, and Internet infrastructure companies. Forum members participating in the development of ICAP include: AdForce, Advertising.com, Allaire Corporation, Anystream, Appliant, Inc., BroadVision, Capella, Cidera, Cobalt Networks, Compaq, Direct Hit, DoubleClick, eBuilt, Ecliptic, eColor, Engage, Entera, Finjan Software, Fresher Information, Frictionless Commerce, Gomez, Google, Idiom, Idini, iKnowledge, InfoLibria, Ingeniux, iWeb.com, Izar, Kanda Software, Lionbridge Technologies, Mirror Image Internet, Navisite, Network Associates, Novell, N2H2, Oki, Open Market, Optibase, Oracle Corp., Pandesic, Predictive Networks, PictureWorks, RuleSpace, Secure Computing, SightPath, StarBurst Software, Symantec Corp., Trend Micro, Inc., Vignette Corporation, Websense, and WWWhoosh. Instructions on how to participate in development of the protocol are available on the ICAP web site at www.i-cap.org or by contacting partners@i-cap.org.

With the first version of ICAP now complete, the Internet community is invited to prototype e-services offerings using ICAP and provide feedback on the protocol at comments@i-cap.org. The protocol is available for download from the ICAP Web site at www.i-cap.org.

Reinforcing the need for the development of an open protocol that will enable the delivery of e-services that leverage the Internet's infrastructure, a September 1999 Forrester Report entitled Networked Services Platforms states that "successful carriers will leave the application services to ASPs and SIs. To create value, carriers will build a networked services platform (NSP) that provides a foundation for others to offer app services. By 2003, users will drive the adoption of the NSP by rejecting closed joint ventures."

"Following the ICAP Forum's successful first meeting, the Internet companies participating in this initiative have taken an important step in bringing the ICAP protocol closer to industry acceptance," said Peter Danzig, vice president of technology, Akamai Technologies. "With the establishment of this protocol, application partners, caching vendors, and content delivery service providers will all be able to communicate on the basis of an open protocol for delivering value-added services."

"With the first draft of ICAP now completed, we anticipate ICAP based e-services hitting the market in the coming months," said Amit Pandey, director of NetCache marketing at Network Appliance. "These will satisfy the significant latent demand of our customers for value added services."

About ICAP

Central to the ICAP concept is a simple, yet powerful, open protocol that enables communication between edge content devices (i.e. Web caches and Internet content delivery servers), and application servers that modify content and then deliver it to Internet access devices. For example, when a Web cache receives a request from a cell phone browser, the cache will deliver the requested content to an application server that adapts the content for display on the cell phone. The cache serves the page, and caches it for subsequent cell phone browsers. This allows a very high degree of flexibility on the types of services that can be offered at access points while maintaining the high performance and integrity of the access servers. Interested parties can provide feedback by contacting partners@i-cap.org. More information on this initiative is available at www.i-cap.org. The first value added services solutions are expected to reach the marketplace later this year.



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