Zeus Technology
Encyclopedia
Zeus Technology, Ltd. is a software company based in Cambridge
, England
. Zeus Technology, Inc. is a wholly owned US subsidiary.
which currently (2006) is one of the highest-performance web server
s for Unix
and Unix-like
platforms. Zeus Web Server is the software of choice for the majority of participants in the SPECWEB benchmarks.
In 2004, Zeus released ZXTM Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager, a software load balancer
for TCP
and UDP
based network protocols, and based on a previous Zeus Load Balancer product.
In 2005 press release, Zeus released the first in a range of own-name hardware appliances through an OEM relationship with Pyramid GMBH; Zeus changed suppliers to Sun Microsystems in 2008, but has now discontinued the production of hardware appliances of this sort. By focusing on software solutions alone, Zeus is unique amongst the other significant vendors in the Application Delivery Controller
market (significance as indicated by meeting the market-share inclusion requirements of Gartner's Magic Quadrant
).
2006 saw the release of Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager Virtual Appliance, announced to coincide with the launch of VMware
's Virtual Appliance Marketplace. Zeus' virtual appliance is the first example of an ADC
device referred to as a SoftADC.
In April 2008, Zeus released ZXTM version 5.0, with Java(TM) Extensions and SIP and RTSP capabilities, as well as IPv6 support, followed by version 5.1 later that year. October 2009 saw the release of version 6.0, accompanied by a minor product renaming from 'ZXTM' to 'Zeus Traffic Manager'.
In June 2011, Zeus acquired art of defence, a Bavarian software company that develops a distributed Web Application Firewall called hyperguard.
In August 2011, Riverbed acquired Zeus. http://www.zeus.com/resources/press-release/riverbed-expands-it-performance-business-acquisition-zeus-technology
, University of Cambridge
.
The company grew rapidly during the excesses of the Dot-com boom. Zeus Technology was nominated one of the top 50 most important privately held companies in the world by Red Herring (2000/06) and one of the Top 100 Emerging Technology Companies by Tornado Insider (2001/05). A public flotation was anticipated (BBC News article), but Zeus Technology remains privately held.
During 2001 and 2002, almost 3% of the world's websites ran on Zeus Web Server Netcraft Reports. For much of 2003, Zeus Web Server was the third most popular webserver (after Apache
and Microsoft IIS) (April 2003 Netcraft survey).
As competitors matured and Windows NT
platforms became more commonplace in the web serving environment, Zeus Web Server's share shrank significantly. In April 2006, the Netcraft survey indicated that Zeus Web Server held approximately 0.7% market share.
In 2004 Zeus Technology released Zeus Traffic Manager (originally 'Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager', ZXTM), based on Zeus' earlier Zeus Load Balancer product. Zeus Traffic Manager manages application traffic, inspecting, transforming and routing requests as it load-balances them across the application infrastructure. Zeus's TrafficScript engine enables users to implement whatever traffic management policies are most appropriate, drawing on the whole range of capabilities of Zeus Traffic Manager. With version 5.0, Java Extensions can now be used to implement additional, complex traffic transformations and other policies.
, the benchmarking tool bundled with Apache HTTP Server
, was originally written by Adam Twiss and donated to the Apache Group:
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Zeus Technology, Inc. is a wholly owned US subsidiary.
Timeline
Zeus' original product, first released in 1995, was Zeus Web ServerZeus Web Server
Zeus Web Server is a proprietary web server for Unix and Unix-like platforms . Support for AIX, Tru64, and Mac OS X was dropped on 10 June 2008....
which currently (2006) is one of the highest-performance web server
Web server
Web server can refer to either the hardware or the software that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the Internet....
s for Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
and Unix-like
Unix-like
A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....
platforms. Zeus Web Server is the software of choice for the majority of participants in the SPECWEB benchmarks.
In 2004, Zeus released ZXTM Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager, a software load balancer
Load balancing (computing)
Load balancing is a computer networking methodology to distribute workload across multiple computers or a computer cluster, network links, central processing units, disk drives, or other resources, to achieve optimal resource utilization, maximize throughput, minimize response time, and avoid...
for TCP
Transmission Control Protocol
The Transmission Control Protocol is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP is one of the two original components of the suite, complementing the Internet Protocol , and therefore the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP...
and UDP
User Datagram Protocol
The User Datagram Protocol is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol network without requiring...
based network protocols, and based on a previous Zeus Load Balancer product.
In 2005 press release, Zeus released the first in a range of own-name hardware appliances through an OEM relationship with Pyramid GMBH; Zeus changed suppliers to Sun Microsystems in 2008, but has now discontinued the production of hardware appliances of this sort. By focusing on software solutions alone, Zeus is unique amongst the other significant vendors in the Application Delivery Controller
Application delivery controller
An application delivery controller is a network device in the datacenter that helps perform common tasks done by web sites in an effort to remove load from the web servers themselves. Many also provide load balancing. They usually sit between the firewall/router and the web farm. The ADC is in...
market (significance as indicated by meeting the market-share inclusion requirements of Gartner's Magic Quadrant
Magic Quadrant
The Gartner Magic Quadrant is a proprietary research tool developed by Gartner Inc., a US based research and advisory firm. According to Gartner, the Magic Quadrant aims to provide a qualitative analysis into a market and its direction, maturity and participants, thus possibly enabling a company...
).
2006 saw the release of Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager Virtual Appliance, announced to coincide with the launch of VMware
VMware
VMware, Inc. is a company providing virtualization software founded in 1998 and based in Palo Alto, California, USA. The company was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2004, and operates as a separate software subsidiary ....
's Virtual Appliance Marketplace. Zeus' virtual appliance is the first example of an ADC
Application delivery controller
An application delivery controller is a network device in the datacenter that helps perform common tasks done by web sites in an effort to remove load from the web servers themselves. Many also provide load balancing. They usually sit between the firewall/router and the web farm. The ADC is in...
device referred to as a SoftADC.
In April 2008, Zeus released ZXTM version 5.0, with Java(TM) Extensions and SIP and RTSP capabilities, as well as IPv6 support, followed by version 5.1 later that year. October 2009 saw the release of version 6.0, accompanied by a minor product renaming from 'ZXTM' to 'Zeus Traffic Manager'.
In June 2011, Zeus acquired art of defence, a Bavarian software company that develops a distributed Web Application Firewall called hyperguard.
In August 2011, Riverbed acquired Zeus. http://www.zeus.com/resources/press-release/riverbed-expands-it-performance-business-acquisition-zeus-technology
History
Zeus Technology was founded in 1995 by Damian Reeves and Adam Twiss, while they were undergraduates at Churchill CollegeChurchill College, Cambridge
Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.In 1958, a Trust was established with Sir Winston Churchill as its Chairman of Trustees, to build and endow a college for 60 fellows and 540 Students as a national and Commonwealth memorial to Winston Churchill; its...
, University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
.
The company grew rapidly during the excesses of the Dot-com boom. Zeus Technology was nominated one of the top 50 most important privately held companies in the world by Red Herring (2000/06) and one of the Top 100 Emerging Technology Companies by Tornado Insider (2001/05). A public flotation was anticipated (BBC News article), but Zeus Technology remains privately held.
During 2001 and 2002, almost 3% of the world's websites ran on Zeus Web Server Netcraft Reports. For much of 2003, Zeus Web Server was the third most popular webserver (after Apache
Apache HTTP Server
The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache , is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server software to surpass the 100 million website milestone...
and Microsoft IIS) (April 2003 Netcraft survey).
As competitors matured and Windows NT
Windows NT
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
platforms became more commonplace in the web serving environment, Zeus Web Server's share shrank significantly. In April 2006, the Netcraft survey indicated that Zeus Web Server held approximately 0.7% market share.
In 2004 Zeus Technology released Zeus Traffic Manager (originally 'Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager', ZXTM), based on Zeus' earlier Zeus Load Balancer product. Zeus Traffic Manager manages application traffic, inspecting, transforming and routing requests as it load-balances them across the application infrastructure. Zeus's TrafficScript engine enables users to implement whatever traffic management policies are most appropriate, drawing on the whole range of capabilities of Zeus Traffic Manager. With version 5.0, Java Extensions can now be used to implement additional, complex traffic transformations and other policies.
Trivia
ApacheBenchApacheBench
ApacheBench is a single-threaded command line computer program for measuring the performance of HTTP web servers. Originally designed to test the Apache HTTP Server, it is actually generic enough to test any web server....
, the benchmarking tool bundled with Apache HTTP Server
Apache HTTP Server
The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache , is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server software to surpass the 100 million website milestone...
, was originally written by Adam Twiss and donated to the Apache Group:
This is ApacheBench, Version 2.0.41-dev <$Revision: 1.141 $> apache-2.0
Copyright (c) 1996 Adam Twiss, Zeus Technology Ltd, http://www.zeustech.net/
Copyright (c) 1998-2002 The Apache Software Foundation, http://www.apache.org/