Ishlangu 1.4 Released - Web Acceleration and Optimization is here!

The latest release of Ishlangu load balancer and application delivery controller is out now. It hasn't been very long since our previous instalment was released, but we couldn't hold back our excitement any longer.

  XenServer and Hyper-V

Previously Ishlangu only came packaged as an ISO or OVF for VMWare vSphere. We now package Ishlangu for Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V.  This makes it even easier for you to install Ishlangu on your virtual infrastructure. 

  DNS Lookup

Under Support > Tools there is a new section called DNS Lookup.  From here you can diagnose any DNS misconfiguration.

  Web Content Optimization / Acceleration

Ishlangu now comes with its very on set of web optimization / acceleration techniques. Web resources can now be optimized by Ishlangu on the fly. Content can now be made smaller, and thus be transfered to your users faster. It is so simple to use because it is activated by your uControl Script™ rules. The WCO features are available for the following resources: Cascading Style Sheets, Javascript, and web images.

If you want to optimize a resource just add to your uControl rule one of the following new functions:

http.wco.optimizeCss();
http.wco.optimizeJs();
http.wco.optimizeImage();

Thats it! There's no need to fill out a complicated form telling Ishlangu where to start optimizing content, what types of content to optimize, which browsers to do the optimizations for.  All you have to do is tell Ishlangu to optimize the response, and it'll do it for you.

So, what's the big deal about Web Content Optimization/Acceleration? Why is it so important? Why are we making such a big deal about it? It's simple really. It all boils down to one word... speed. We all want websites to load fast. In fact, we want them to load really fast. Just take a look at our previous blog about page speed and website load times and you'll understand why it is so important.

Optimizing content such as CSS, Javascript, and images means that your web pages will load faster.  Faster loading web pages means better user retention.  Better user retention means better conversion rates.  Better conversion rates means more revenue, and we all love more revenue :)

As well as these new features, there is the usual round of general improvements and bug fixes.

We highly recommend existing users upgrade now to take advantage of WCO and the other new features.

Enjoy.