DataPower Wire Speed

DataPower processes XML at what we like to call "wire speed." What does that mean?

DataPower is a network appliance on an Ethernet network. Its simplest configuration just connects ports on a public IP address to ports on an internal IP address, doing nothing to the traffic and just acting as a pass-thru. In this mode, DataPower is as fast as any Ethernet network router or hub.

But of course DataPower has capabilities beyond a basic network router or hub--namely to manipulate XML. This requires CPU, and a lot of it--XML manipulation is usually a performance killer. The CPU in a DataPower box is so fast, and the XML manipulation code is so optimized, that the XML manipulation inside the box actually runs faster (in most cases, at least) than the Ethernet I/O ports on the edges of the box. So XML documents being validated, transformed, decrypted, etc. pass through the box as quickly as a straight pass-thru (although the CPU is generating a lot more heat!).

So XML manipulation at wire speed means that the document passes through just as fast whether it's being manipulated significantly or not being manipulated at all. DataPower is that fast.