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DOT.COM: INTERVIEW "We'll break even by next year" Vivek Agarwal, CEO, e-gurucool, chats with BT's Aparna Ramalingam on life after the second round (of funding).
Have you got your business and revenue
models in place? After jumping the second round hurdle,
what's next? CACHING
Here's a poser. A straightforward page of a website (minus graphics) weighs around 20 kb. A well-laid page's weight could be anywhere above 60 kb. So, which one downloads faster? There's no obvious answer, thanks to caching. Similarly, when Hotmail or Rediffmail downloads in a jiffy, that's thanks to a ridiculously simple technology that has become the favourite innovation of a number of high traffic sites. Says Dhruv Sharma, CEO, 123India.com: ''With the introduction of broadband products, the pressure on bandwidth will increase, so caching is here to stay.'' Most big portals use cache pages that generate lots of traffic. Rediff, for one, has been doing so since 1999. Points out Venki Nishtala, Senior Executive Veep, Rediff Technologies: ''All ISPs in the world fundamentally do caching, as it makes business sense for them.'' Simply put, a cache is a dedicated set of hardware and software that monitors web content and objects requested; the cache stores this data after retrieving it from a server. When the same content and objects are requested again, the cache delivers the object from its storage, rather than passing the request to the web server. Caching in the form of memory hierarchies has been around since the early 1970s. But the idea of transparently inserting a cache between a client and server came up more or less when the first internet http proxies were invented. Typically, data is collected from servers at the centre of a network and stored on servers closer to users. So, the more people request a specific object during its useful life, the more repetitive traffic the cache eliminates. Caching devices also determine whether their copy of an object is still fresh, or if it needs to retrieve a new copy from the original server. Besides, caches can reduce the need for expensive bandwidth by at least 35 per cent. Says Net4India's CEO Jasjit Sawhney: ''It definitely means less costs for the sites that generate huge traffic. The overall network congestion is reduced.'' The reduction in costs for websites as result of caching range anywhere between 30-40 per cent. It's also beneficial for the ISP, as it does not incur bandwidth costs for repeated requests. All in all, lower costs for customers as well. Intercept Consulting's AdCept Server, for instance, has seen a reduction in cost of at least 50 per cent in serving ads after implementing a proprietary caching mechanism. Closely related to the concept of caching is 'mirroring'. Both the concepts can be used interchangeably. Mirroring is a replication of a website across various servers over the world, so that critical information is available in all parts of the world at all times. Caching, on the other hand, is driven more by user requests. But there are inherent limitations. When the content is extremely dynamic (like stock quotes or cricket scores), caching can turn out to be an expensive proposition. The future for caching looks bright. As broadband availability expands, sophisticated bandwidth-hogging content is sure to follow. No matter how wide the pipes get, there always will be enough pictures, video, and data to run across it, and caching technologies will have to ensure that this traffic flows with as few jams as possible. Then, a case does exist for caching to be done at the organisations' end also. Says Madan Mohan Rao, Group Consultant, Microland: ''This is a very hot area for those with global operations, as they would look to optimising their network.'' Cache this thought. -Aparna Ramalingam E-STORE Forget books and vegetables. Online shopping for computer equipment could hold the key to the future of e-commerce in India. The comfort factor is obvious: pc-savvy surfers have reacted to this shopping choice with alacrity, at least in the US. Will the same reaction emanate from the Indian e-consumer, both individuals and companies? Compaq set the ball rolling by offering customers an option to complete an end-to-end transaction over the Net. Compaq consumers can now configure-to-order a pc in the e- store. It was Samsung's buildurpc.com that first introduced this service in India, late last year. IBM, which has call and service centres in major metros, offers the gamut of products, including servers, pc accessories, upgrades, as well as free online support. Now, add HCL's ehclstore.com, which has been over a year in the making. The site, under beta testing at the moment, is modelled on the facade of HCL-Frontline's physical store, and aims at introducing e-tailing for a complete range it products. Watch out for the tax filter, which calculates the sales tax across each state, and the promotions filter, which gives you discounts, automatically. -Vinod Mahanta INTERNET EXCHANGES For over five years after internet services were launched in India, the country manages to live without it. Now, VSNL has commissioned two internet exchanges-that direct data traffic one IP address to another-at Cochin and Mumbai, to handle the growing net traffic originating out of India. About time too: studies carried out by VSNL indicate that over 40 per cent of the internet traffic originating from India is bound for India-centric sites. However, in the absence of an internet exchange, the traffic first goes through the gateway and gets redirected back to India, again through the gateway. Explains Karthik Natarajan Sales Manager (India) of Juniper Networks: ''Exchanges direct internet traffic efficiently.'' Cochin and Mumbai were chosen since the ports for the Sea-Me-We cables are located there. Says Rajeev Ratan, COO, Indiabulls.com, ''Increased traffic speed is critical for sites like us, because the amount of data we are pushing is very high.'' In an age of gloom and doom, at least some things are getting better. -Ashutosh Sinha Back in internet time, to February 1996
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Q. What's the mood in the online
education market? Can pure-play models survive? 
