SANTA CLARA, CA: Speedera Networks, a provider of content delivery services, has partnered with eTouch Systems Corp., to provide a comprehensive SpeedSuite edge delivery solution for NASA as part of a program to consolidate all 3,000 of the space agency's Web sites and make them accessible through a single portal. According to the company?s press release, after the recent deployment of Speedera's services, the NASA portal experienced a three-fold improvement in performance. Web page download times are now between 0.8 and 1.0 seconds and NASA has broken into the top ten U.S. Government Web sites with the fastest average performance, as ranked by the Keynote Government Internet Performance Index (KG40). The NASA Portal Project contract was awarded to eTouch, the prime contractor, which is also providing the content management system. eTouch partnered with Speedera to provide a broad suite of content delivery network (CDN) services. Other eTouch partners included in the project are Sprint Corp., which is providing Web site hosting services, and Critical Mass, Inc., which is responsible for providing the interface architecture and the NASA audience-tested user interface. As part of this project, eTouch is using Speedera's SpeedSuite solution to provide NASA a comprehensive suite of CDN services that includes whole site delivery, streaming media, load balancing and advanced site monitoring. "Consolidating Web site delivery is more efficient using Speedera's global content delivery network, and provides an optimal architecture to meet high traffic demands from planned and unplanned events," said Aniruddha Gadre, President of eTouch. "NASA needed a complete and elegant solution that streamlines both content management and content delivery." "Agencies like NASA have realized this comprehensive solution for an integrated portal is needed for bringing order to the chaos of too many Web sites," said Ajit Gupta, CEO and president of Speedera Networks. "Also, by housing frequently requested content on multiple servers distributed worldwide, Speedera shortens the distance between Internet users and the data they seek in order to improve performance and reliability. By outsourcing the management of the site, the Federal Government can stretch budget dollars in this lean economy rather than spend money on building and maintaining an expensive Web site infrastructure."