MARLBOROUGH, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–PortSys, Inc., (www.portsys.com) a global OEM partner with Microsoft™ and HP™, today announced BallistaTM, a proprietary engine built to provide code optimization, compression and cache control for web-based application traffic. The addition of the Ballista application acceleration to the PortSys Unified Access Gateway (UAG) appliances provides an industry first combination of advanced security providing secure remote access for applications and information resources. Now, with BallistaTM, user productivity is improved, and application server load is reduced and regains up 70% of precious bandwidth.
BALLISTATM is easy to deploy and offers these features:
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Clientless – no additional software is required on client devices
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Minimizes the amount of traffic passed to clients
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Reduces page load times, even on mobile devices
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Decreases load on back-end applications and networks
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Provides seamless integration with UAG without compromising any of the UAG security controls
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Intuitive interface simplifies configuration and management
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Integrates reporting and provides real-time efficiency analysis
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Requires no changes to back-end applications
“Many organizations require the advanced security and comprehensive access control provided by our UAG Gateway appliances,” said PortSys CEO Michael Oldham. “BallistaTM adds the ability to dramatically improve the performance of web-based applications published through our gateways. By utilizing a combination of our Patent Pending technologies, we are able to improve end-user response times, increase the efficiency of application servers and substantially reduce the amount of information transferred to the end-user’s machine. The combination of application acceleration with our next-generation security technologies creates outstanding value for our customers.”
UAG’s flexibility is represented in BallistaTM allowing clients to easily optimize any web application published. Clients can accelerate their chosen applications whether they are standard commercial products or products developed in-house. BallistaTM operates silently on the UAG appliance, continually analyzing and optimizing application traffic in a non-invasive manner. Data is routed into the Ballista engine and seamlessly returned to UAG with the applied optimization methods chosen. Administrators have the ability to select application specific optimization methods and activate or deactivate these on the fly without needing to reboot. Every application optimized through BallistaTM provides a graphical efficiency report for review in real-time or for historical view.
Optimization and Compression
BallistaTM combines and minimizes JS and CSS files present in most browser-based applications, such as MS Sharepoint and Outlook Web Access reducing the number of server requests needed to render the application in the browser. It then merges similar CSS classes, removes unused properties and removes white space. BallistaTM compression leverages browser compliant encoding methods which are applied to the payload of an HTTP/HTTPS response to the UAG portal. This significantly compresses the resource before it is transported to/from the UAG portal and renders at an accelerated rate.
Caching and Optimization Logic
Files are cached locally within the BallistaTM proxy engine reducing the load on application servers and improving response times to the end user. It also provides caching of HTTP headers which is crucial when processing HTTPS requests. BallistaTM also analyzes and optimizes the complete chain of data, including HTML/XML code, server-side processes and the connection between application server and the client’s browser.
“We are very excited to have this technology in place for the UAG appliance,” said Oldham. “UAG offers the advanced security that customers need to control access to critical business resource. With BallistaTM on board, we not only offer the highest level of security for remote users and their companies, we can actually increase the speed that users can work, boosting productivity and saving on valuable company resources.”
About PortSys
PortSys provides substantial expertise around the Microsoft Forefront Security products. As a recognized leader within their market, they provide significant value to their customers, above and beyond the value of the Microsoft applications that come as part of their appliances.
PortSys currently has hundreds of customers worldwide representing some of the world’s largest financial institutions, government ministries, defense departments, healthcare organizations and industry-leading enterprises.
PortSys is a privately funded company focused on network and applications security. With headquarters in Marlborough, MA, USA, PortSys also serves customers from its offices in the UK and through distributors throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa. For more information, call (781) 996-4900 in North America, +44 208 196 2420 for International, or visit www.portsys.com.
