Popular files collect in the caches and might be used many times without needing to be reloaded from remote sites. Several dozen Web cache products have entered the marketplace within the past few years. Unfortunately, competing performance claims have been difficult to verify, and haven't meant quite the same thing from vendor to vendor. IRCache bakeoffs address the data networking community's needs for high-quality, independent performance data on commercial products. Vendors who want to test the performance of their products have an opportunity to do so under impartial, evenly matched conditions.
Polygraph simulates Web clients and servers and is becoming a de facto benchmarking standard.
It is available at no cost from IRCache. The first bakeoff was held in early 1999. Preparations for the second bakeoff began last August with an organizational meeting in Boulder, Colorado. Two vendors, Eolian and Cacheflow, withdrew before testing started on January 17, 2000. The bakeoff was held in a 50,000 square-foot facility near Houston, Texas, generously provided by Compaq Computer Corporation.