Rainbow includes several small utilities packaged in a simple yet informative Windows application that allows you to monitor all installed CryptoSwift cards, ROM information and the status of each installed card. In the lab, the product's monitoring application let us see the number of RSA signings that CryptoSwift performed, and assured us that the product was working correctly. The same interface can perform firmware updates and self-diagnostic testing of individual cards.

Rainbow offers supplemental performance testing tools, which allow you to stress-test your own secure server. During testing, we used its performance analysis tool, and while its statistics were helpful, the tool was difficult to configure. You can use this device to generate test scenarios, but the documentation is minimal. Rainbow might make this option more attractive if server configurations change or more stresses are added to the system after installing CryptoSwift.

We easily installed two CryptoSwift PCI cards, which were automatically integrated into Netscape Communications Corp.'s Enterprise Web Server by CryptoSwift's installation program. (nFast lacked this integration.) Rainbow's installation kit and drivers were conveniently available online. (In contrast, nCipher did not include any helpful documentation on its Web site.) CryptoSwift even detected our multiple Netscape servers and asked us which ones it should configure.

Our tests of CryptoSwift's performance indicate improved response times and an increased number of transactions per second. CryptoSwift handled an average of 30 secured transactions per second. The average response time of 5.3 seconds was a 10-percent improvement over an unaccelerated secure Web server's response times, which were under a load of 900 to 1,500 requests per second. CryptoSwift's low rate of connection failures lends to its appeal, since customers often prefer to wait rather than be unable to connect at all. During the heaviest load--with 6,000 connection attempts over a five-second interval--CryptoSwift failed to connect on 300 trials; our unaccelerated server failed to connect on 2,300 of the 6,000 attempts; and nFast 300 failed on 600 of the connection requests.

CryptoSwift supports Netscape and Microsoft's IIS. Both products run as services that can load-balance cryptographic functionality among multiple units. For sites that use IIS and experience problems with their secure Web server's performance, one or more CryptoSwift boards may be the answer.

Lori MacVittie is a senior systems engineer with Application Software Technologies, a provider of technology solutions. Send your comments on this article to her at lori@nandgate.com.