BoostWorks' BoostEdge product, starting at $20,500, focuses on improving performance on browser-based applications that drain bandwidth, using techniques such as caching and policy-based routing. And FatPipe relies on policy-based routing and other methods to direct traffic on the appropriate circuit for $4,500 to $19,000.

Service providers don't want to lose potential revenue to such products, so they're coming out with their own options. Cogent Communications Inc., for example, offers its 6,000 customers 100-Mbps Internet-access lines for $1,000 a month, the same price as a T1 port. The caveat: The company targets small and midsize businesses located in one of 3,000 U.S. office buildings in which Cogent has its own fiber. Cogent operates a 12,500-mile fiber network and 22 switching centers to connect the buildings. "We're focused on increased applications and utilization of bandwidth, rather than spending dollars on systems that let you squeeze more out of a very archaic pipe," CEO Dave Schaefer says.

Not surprisingly, the large service providers claim bandwidth in the United States is cheap enough to add without much concern. "For the most part, getting more out of bandwidth isn't a huge thing," says Alan Louth, manager of U.S. dedicated Internet access for WorldCom. "Bandwidth is cheap and plentiful." Domestic bandwidth prices have dropped by about 66% in the past couple of years, and the service providers say they've hit bottom. "We can only take the prices down so far before we're losing money," Louth says. Enterprise traffic continues to grow, albeit slower than it used to, and that has made up for revenue loss, he says. WorldCom offers built-in shaping tools for its VPN service to direct bandwidth toward the appropriate applications and locations. It also offers a metropolitan area Ethernet service for high-speed access to address concerns for bandwidth optimization.

But ask the business-technology executives who have bought the optimization tools: Shaving thousands of dollars off monthly bandwidth costs, with a quick payback on the up-front hardware investment, is an enticing proposition.

Illustration by Campbell Laird