Startup's Service Offloads Web Server Burden

A startup company plans to unveil a service a next week thatwill let electronic commerce companies and information publishers outsource content distribution to minimize access delays and server loads.

Sandpiper Networks Inc. says its Footprint distribution places servers between a company's Web servers and users' browsers so that Sandpiper, not the content provider, bears the brunt of Internet traffic. For instance, the Los Angeles Times used Sandpiper a few weeks ago to host its copy of special prosecutor Kenneth Starr's report on President Clinton.

Such capability can help IT groups minimize their hardware and software investments, says Sandpiper president and CEO Leo Spiegel. Footprint, to be available immediately, will be priced according to the amount of bandwidth used. Subsequent releases are slated to deal with business-to-business and intranet traffic.