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Table of Contents
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Challenge of Delivering a Sustained Productive SaaS Experience . . . . . . . 5
Dynamic HTML Generation Is Fast, So Why Are Users Complaining?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Starting Up a HTTPS Connection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Congestion and Packet Loss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Browser Execution Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Combined Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
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Executive Summary:
Providers of software as a service (SaaS) applications face increasing challenges in delivering their
product the way customers demand it: fast, consistent, reliable, non-frustrating, and always keeping
them productive. The obstacles they face include:
Distance between the end user and the server, and the latency that can cause
The impact of temporary or peak-usage slowdowns on user acceptance and seat license sales
User impatience and the need to reduce time-to-interaction or lose seat license sales
Instart Logic looked at every segment of the pathway from originating server to the end users browser
running web-based applications, and at the applications themselves, to create an interlocking set of
innovations that dramatically improve performance and end user experiences:
The underlying acceleration platform (called the Web Application Streaming Network)
The Global Network Accelerator, which address bottlenecks in the First Mile, the Middle Mile,
and the wireless Last Mile in turn, the connections along each segment, and the protocols that
control them
Dynamic HTML Streaming, which uses application intelligence to handle personalized, dynamic
content with greater speed and tackle the issue of wasted browser execution cycles.
These solutions from Instart Logic completely replace and surpass existing CDNs. This white paper
details their operations, functions, and interaction. Encompassing in its scope, Web Application
Streaming solves many of the issues that SaaS providers face on a 24/7 basis. The best way to leverage
this new technology is to understand its components and how they work together, as described in this
white paper. Then via a Performance Proof or an actual trial with real traffic evaluate how effective it
is in improving the true performance of your web-based applications.
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At the originating server specifically the time it takes for backend servers to create the dynamic
HTML required to display and execute a web application.
In the Middle Mile of the global Internet it takes times for information to travel across the
various Internet backbones between the origin web server and the end user.
In the wireless Last Mile the data must pass through congestion and variable networking
conditions on Wi-Fi, 3G, and 4G wireless networks used by end users.
In the browser itself the time it takes for the browser to parse the web application code and
display the web application to users.
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Both the TCP and HTTPS protocols are very chatty, meaning they require significant back and forth
communication to establish a secure communication session. It typically takes between 10 and 12
trips between two devices to set up a connection. It can require more if one side decides to change
underlying characteristics of the connection, such as the type of encryption cypher used.
In the figure above, where the network latency is between 100 and 150 milliseconds, it can take close to
two seconds merely to establish the connection to the point where application data can be transferred.
Plus Internet protocols such as TCP have been designed to start off at a low level of efficiency and
slowly learn the characteristics of the connection by ramping up over a period of time.
Diagram showing slow connection ramp along with back off and recovery due to congestion
The TCP and HTTPS protocols interact in a manner such that, when packet loss or timeouts occur, the connections will ramp down and recovery can sometimes add seconds of penalty to the transfer. The ramp-down will
continue to impact the connection, as the recovery for stock protocols is designed to be slow.
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US-based Server to UK
iPad: Connection setup
without Instart Logic
Localization of network
connection setup with
Instart Logic
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The wired First Mile between the backend web servers that generate dynamic web application
code, and the Instart Logic network location closest to it.
The large Middle Mile across the global Internet between the Instart Logic location near the
backend web server and the Instart Logic node nearest the end users device.
Finally, the wireless Last Mile between the Instart Logic servers nearest the end users deivce and
the final 3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi networks that connect the end user device to the Internet.
Instart Logics end-to-end solution for SaaS that addresses all segments of the pathway
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An Ingenious New Approach to the Middle Mile With the Inter-Proxy Transfer
Protocol (IPTP)
Traditional web delivery systems play simple tricks with TCP and HTTPS over the Middle Mile of the
Internet. Once dynamic assets enter the Instart Logic network, they are carried across the Middle Mile
on a new purpose-built binary protocol IPTP (Inter-Proxy Transport Protocol) designed specifically
for the inter-proxy communication on globally-distributed delivery systems such as the Web Application
Streaming Network.
The IPTP protocol was invented by Instart Logic researchers and engineers to overcome the inefficiencies of TCP and HTTPS over global distances. It does this by setting up a persistent matrix of
ramped-up connections between Instart Logic serving locations, then efficiently framing and multiplexing dynamic transfers through this matrix. IPTP is implemented using Googles extremely efficient
protobuf technology. Google, which uses protobuf extensively for implementing its own internal communication protocols, has open-sourced the technology for others to use.
Not only is the IPTP built for maximum efficiency and low overhead, it also allows for future expandability. It is designed to allow for accelerating emerging protocols such as SPDY, WebSockets, and WebRTC
in the future across the Middle Mile of the Instart Logic web application streaming service.
Traditional connection
ramp and backoff due
to packet loss
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Conclusions
To give SaaS providers a major performance differentiator, Instart Logic has taken a fresh approach to every
segment of the delivery path, from the originating server to the browser, unfettered by attachment to any
existing or legacy approach. By using a combination of new approaches at the network layer and application intelligence it allows SaaS providers to provide native-like application performance for their users.
The resulting technology, Web Application Streaming from Instart Logic, is easy and frictionless to test
and to adopt. The benefits to an increasingly mobile-connected user population are obvious, quantifiable,
and important to the bottom line. Instart Logic addresses much more than the pathway of Web delivery,
however we adapt to the application itself, and to what users and their browsers do with it.
It is a comprehensive collection of performance inventions that work together and provide the first
end-to-end performance boost over both wired and wireless connections designed for web-based SaaS
applications. We are the only solution that addresses such a wide range of performance issues: network
congestion, network unpredictability, wireless network issues, the application itself, plus the need for larger
images, more dynamic HTML, and amazing end user expectations.
When SaaS performance is critical, using Instart Logics Web Application Streaming Network is an attractive
new option that goes far beyond traditional network-only approaches to deliver new levels of end user
productivity.
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