TCP is a chatty protocol—and when you're sending large data files a long distance across the Internet, it can get downright garrulous: Whenever a packet is dropped, the entire data has to be re-sent. So two network engineers created a new protocol, fasp, and founded a company, Aspera, around it. The application-layer protocol (which invokes a play on the company name as well as the words "fast and secure protocol") doesn't require re-sending the entire data—it sends only what's needed.
Recently, adding to its stable of server and client products, Aspera announced Aspera faspex Server 1.5, a digital package delivery system that enables users to send huge amounts of data to multiple groups. It also announced a management console called Aspera Console that helps admins remotely manage Aspera servers and clients. Customers include organizations in the film industry, plus those ranging from an online video site, to a provider of seismic data to the oil and gas industry, to the NIH's Thousand Genome project, as well as cloud computing vendors. To learn more about Aspera's transfer technology, server software update, and management console, see Aspera's website.