The software, called Internet IronWare, runs on Foundry's ServerIron switch platform and is designed to improve the performance and reliability of the growing number of servers at the heart of corporate Internet, intranet, and extranet sites.

Internet IronWare builds on the concept of Layer 4 switching, which has been championed by Foundry and other vendors for the past year. By analyzing transport layer headers, Layer 4 switches identify specific types of traffic and balance the load by routing that traffic to different servers while adding security and maintaining quality of service standards.

Internet IronWare goes a step further, identifying application layer traffic, according to Foundry officials. This lets the switches direct incoming traffic to the server that contains the requested information. Rather than replicate the entire content and load balance among servers, users can store information on fewer servers and intelligently direct traffic to the servers hosting the requested information or resources.

Hotjobs.com Ltd., an Internet employment service in New York, uses Layer 4 switching to provide intelligent load balancing among its many Web servers. Foundry's application layer system would let Hotjobs.com direct specific types of application traffic to different servers.