1. What is SkyCache?

SkyCache is:

A premier high-speed satellite datacasting company, that will radically change the way data traverses the Internet. Release 1.0 is designed for use by Internet Service Providers and Fortune 1000 corporations.

2. How old is SkyCache? Where did its initial funding come from?

SkyCache was founded in August, 1997. A private placement round of $400K was closed in February, 1998. In June, 1998, it closed $6 million in venture capital from Carlyle Venture Partners L.P..

3. What services does SkyCache offer?

Release 1.0

SkyCache Release 1.0 is billed monthly and provides two distinct types of services via satellite broadcast: Cache Turbocharging and a full Usenet News feed.

In the future

SkyCache will be adding other types of service delivery to the basic core of cache turbocharging and Usenet News, including streaming audio and video distribution, web site replication, and other types of service that benefit from the unique advantages of satellite datacasting technologies.

4. What is cache turbocharging and how does it make your cache work better? Cache turbocharging is the technique of adding "hot" (i.e. high probability of hit) data into a cache in order to improve cache hit rate. SkyCache's cache turbocharging schemes have been demonstrated to increase base cache hit rates anywhere from 10 to 30 points in initial operation. For example, if you have a cache operating at 20%, SkyCache could potentially increase the performance of that cache up to 50% or better today. SkyCache uses two techniques for cache turbocharging: predictive and reactive. Predictive cache updating - the technique used by most SkyClones(tm) -- proactively retrieves the most popular web pages and sites on the Internet and then regularly feeds them onto the cache. Pre-population works well for consistently visited sites, such as CNN and ESPN, but doesn't work at all for single-event, overnight "hot" sites, like the Mars Pathfinder site or the Apple iMac information pages. Reactive Caching is unique to SkyCache, with patents pending on certain techniques used in how it operates. SkyCache looks at miss stream data - what people are asking for - in real time and aggregates that data. The information is analyzed to determine which web pages are currently "hot" on the Net and need to be delivered to customer sites. The Reactive Caching technology is the perfect complement to traditional pre-population schemes since it is perfect for burst, single-event hot sites. Apple's iMac announcement was one of the first burst events caught during the initial testing of SkyCache's Reactive Cache technology. With SkyCache and a proper open-standards cache, ISPs and Fortune 1000 companies can save anywhere from 30-50% in current bandwidth utilization, while their users experience faster response time on the World Wide Web. Keeping web traffic off internal network backbones also frees up bandwidth between POPs. Satellite broadcast provides near-instant updating of all caches across the Internet without having to deal with multi-tiered caching schemes or leased line connectivity dedicated for cache updating. Cache updating "out of band" by satellite broadcast avoids bottlenecks through traditional choke points such as NAPs, slower multi-tier cache services, and overloaded web servers.

5. What equipment does SkyCache use?

Satellite broadcast

We buy satellite time on GE-3, a GEO Ku-band satellite, for our United States operations.

Dish & receiver

A 1.2 meter dish is used for reception. The receiver is an off-the-shelf item from WavePhore Technologies (NASDAQ: WAVO). In some locations, such as Alaska and Hawaii, larger dishes are necessary.

Cache Adapter

The Cache Adapter is an off-the-shelf workstation running a variant of the UNIX operating system that takes information from the satellite receiver, converts it to a usable form and then hands it over to an ICP-compliant cache.

Customer Cache

SkyCache is not a cache solutions vendor. The Release 1.0 service works with open-standards caching solutions using the ICP protocol.

SkyCache has tested and certified many cache vendor solutions as "SkyCache Compatible" including:

• Cisco Systems Cache Engine
• Cobalt Networks CacheQube
• Entera TeraNode Series
• InfoLibria's DynaCache Series
• Inktomi Traffic Server 2.0
• Network Appliance's C230 and C630
• Rave Systems Cache family
• Novell's BorderManager
• CacheFlow's Product Family

In addition, all the current NLANR Squid versions have now been certified as SkyCache Compatible. Other solutions are frequently being sent to us for testing; call for the latest.

6. How often do you broadcast information? At what speeds?

Data constantly flows through the SkyCache system 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, less any scheduled outages.
We transmit up to 4 megabits of data per second at peak times, including web cache updates and Usenet News.

7. How does the "Master Cache" work?

The Master Cache takes miss reporting statistics from all customer-site caches and aggregates them into one large virtual cache community. The most popular web pages "bubble up" and are shipped out on the satellite. An evolving set of rules has been developed to filter and select the most popular web traffic for broadcast.

Unlike other schemes, SkyCache's constant monitoring allows for on-the-fly "reactive" updating of caches, without the delays and hiccups involved with predictive caching.

8. Why a monthly service?

A monthly service avoids a large capital expense and fits in with the cash flow models of most ISPs and large enterprise WAN/LANs. A monthly service also allows for a policy to conduct "next day" replacement of customer-site gear.

9. Who are your customers?

Our first customers are United States-based ISPs. They understand the product and are either implementing caches or are looking to implement caches to save bandwidth to the Internet and across their national networks. There are approximately 3,000 potential ISP customers.

Fortune 1000 companies are also becoming customers. Many of them are larger ISPs between their Intranets, Extranets, and Internets.

Service offerings in Europe are expected by the end of 1998, with expansion to Asia in 1999.

10. What makes SkyCache so special?

SkyCache is using off-the-shelf equipment - hardware, software, satellite broadcast technology, and the caching software, so the technical risk is virtually none.

SkyCache is filing for patents on the unique methods and software it has developed.

SkyCache is operated as a SERVICE, rather than software or a software/hardware bundle.

SkyCache was brought to life by the founder of DIGEX, Doug Humphrey. DIGEX was started up in 1991 and sold off to Intermedia Communications for $150 million in 1997. Humphrey has many years of TCP/IP and Internet experience.