Expand Networks has developed an Oracle-specific software module for its Compass WAN acceleration gear, and claims that beta testers and its own labs are reporting anything from five to 65 times performance gain as a result.

It said that the speed boost is partly down to its ability to accelerate the underlying network protocols, but that a lot of it is due to a caching scheme that's far more capable than your average web-cache.

"The huge gain comes from interfaces to applications where we can cache static information, and some dynamic information, locally to the user," said James Sherlow, Expand's technical veep. "We can also use specific protocols to check upstream for changed content, whereas a client browser just does a timestamp check."

He added that the new software also enables the Compass boxes to identify Oracle traffic at Layer 7, so business-critical Oracle apps can be given priority over other traffic on the WAN.

Several Expand customers have already tested the software, including Paradigm, which develops software for the oil and gas industry. Haim Hershko-Yavor, Paradigm's IT manager, said its performance has persuaded his company to buy more Compass boxes.

"Without reliable performance of Oracle applications in our numerous remote offices, we simply can't do our work efficiently," he said. "The optimisation of Oracle applications has improved end user performance and productivity at the remote sites and as a result, the Compass platform will be deployed at additional offices." ®