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Breaking News and Server Gridlock: Page 4 of 6

URL translation troubles were overburdening the app servers. Sessions were crashing and pages were loading at a snail's pace, risking relationships with readers and advertisers. The IT department's sales pitch for the appliance quick-fix was heard loud and clear by the company's president, COO and CFO. "We told them if we didn't do something soon, our sites would become inaccessible for many visitors," says Skip Marsh, IT manager for MNG Interactive.

The only other option to fix the URL and performance problem was too pricey and complicated--purchase more software and server hardware for about $230,000 and then manually load-balance the Web servers with the DNS. The Redline T/X 2600 Web I/O Accelerator appliance would cost under $50,000, so it won hands down.

The hosting division had been pitching its new portal infrastructure even before the appliance, pointing to the future growth of the site. Even with the new URL translation appliance, the site still couldn't accommodate more large MediaNews pubs that were hosted elsewhere. "These large sites were not yet being hosted by us because the system couldn't handle the additional traffic loads," Marsh says. "We explained how we would be able to increase revenue by adding this functionality," he says. That not only would mean more readers and advertisers, but also bring more MediaNews pubs under the company's portal.

"We were able to come to an agreement on a three-year plan, where we would spread the costs and functionality out over time," Marsh says. It begins with installing the new hardware and portal software and then gradually rolling out the registration, personalization and online subscriptions.

Securing IT dollars, even for such an obviously important project, still is difficult, Marsh says. "Any time you ask for money, you get resistance initially--capital dollars are not as readily available as they were a few years ago," he says. The next system MNG Interactive will have to sell is a managed end-to-end network. It includes system and application monitoring, capacity planning, a more advanced backup system and disaster-recovery plan.

Skip Marsh: IT Manager, MediaNews Group Interactive, Denver