Other vendors either required a client-side install or required code changes [to Getty Images' software] or installing vendor software on multiple servers [in Getty Image's data center]," she says.

Performance increases were dramatic after the FastSoft gear was installed in September. A 1G file downloaded from a Getty Images data center in London to Tokyo went from 75 minutes before to 13 minutes with Fastsoft installed. Download time from London to Los Angeles went from 49 minutes to 15 minutes, Schuyler says.

FastSoft uses FastTCP technology to accelerate traffic. It does this by adjusting the sending rate of TCP packets to the rate links can support, overcoming TCP throttling back transmission rates when acknowledgment packets return too slowly.

FastTCP uses algorithms that measure the round-trip time it takes from when a packet is sent until its acknowledgement is received. It uses that information to deduce the maximum sending rate that the link can support. It then adjusts the sending rate accordingly. FastTCP interoperates with normal TCP.

Schuyler says the improved speeds have impressed Getty Images' customers, but perhaps not the customers' customers who are the end users. "It's one of those things I don't think people are cognizant of unless it's, 'Why is this taking so long?'" she says.