AppRiver (http://www.appriver.com), a provider of e-mail messaging and Web security solutions, has reported results of a performance evaluation using the mobile performance monitoring testing solutions from Compuware Gomez. 

The Gomez data showed a link between the AppRiver-Akamai relationship and AppRiver's ability to provide businesses with fast, reliable hosted Microsoft Exchange.  In particular, the results demonstrated that AppRiver's Akamai-enabled Hosted Exchange service can improve mobile e-mail performance by up to 50%.

Interfering factors like Internet congestion and cell network issues can negatively affect e-mail performance, impacting the demands of today's increasingly mobile workforce. AppRiver is the first Microsoft Exchange hosting provider to embed the Akamai global distribution platform into its secure service. As a result, AppRiver customers receive faster connectivity and more reliable performance from both wireline and wireless business e-mail at no additional cost.

Gomez's mobile monitoring solution was used to test performance levels of communication to AppRiver-enhanced mobile devices with, and without, Akamai acceleration over U.S.-based mobile broadband networks. The series of tests simulated users with identical login-credentials, signing into their Exchange accounts, and running through a typical Exchange transaction. Response times were tracked at three designated U.S. mobile testing nodes (Boston, Chicago, and Seattle) within each major U.S. cell carrier's network. Key findings include:

° The amount of time it takes users to connect and sync with Exchange was reduced by half when using the Akamai-enabled AppRiver Secure Hosted Exchange solution. 

° Connection speeds degrade the further away a user is from the origin server, leaving a network to lose up to 25% of data packets that transverse its links, causing mobile devices to hang or lose connectivity. 

° AppRiver Exchange customers received clear, consistent e-mail delivery over a variety of wireless networks, regardless of their location or what was happening on the Internet.