With its dominant foothold in corporate networks undisputed, Cisco Systems has set its sights firmly on the market for content networking. Or, more to the point, it wants to bridge the data center with the network edge, something it says content-delivery network providers have not done.

Addressing attendees of the inaugural CDN 2001 conference in Silicon Valley Wednesday, Jim Ricotta, general manager of Cisco's content-networking business unit, said that despite the recession, companies continue to deploy E-business applications that combine user-friendly interfaces with access to vast databases. "That's why we're investing so much in content networking," said Ricotta, though he declined to specify the level of investment. Successfully delivering such apps, he said, hinges upon establishing seamless integration between the data center and apps cached at the edge of the network.

Ricotta brought a customer to the conference to back up his point. Michael Alban, strategic alliance manager for Siemens Health Services, told the audience that Siemens has deployed a content network for its health-care providers that's delivered from IBM and Compaq servers via Cisco routers and networking gear. Currently, the network is focused on a single Java applet that lets doctors, nurses, and administrators manage everything from patient data to equipment ordering through a simple browserlike interface. Alban says the content network, deployed over the past several months, is serving an initial base of 50 customers with just three servers, reducing upfront server costs by 83%. He expects to have 2,000 customers representing 2 million health-care professionals using the network within two years.

Siemens caches the Java applet on content engines stored at customer sites, meaning that when shift changes occur, the flood of data requests aren't accompanied by bandwidth-hogging downloads of the applet. HTRC Group analyst Greg Howard says it's important to establish which apps should be cached at the network's edge. "There are those apps that are best delivered from a centralized location," says Howard. "What do you distribute to the edge? Those things you need to."