Erdas announces a new release of Erdas Image Web Server, with Optimized Tile Delivery serving more than 4000 tiles in one second. In comparison benchmarks, ERDAS Image Web Server consistently delivers more data, quicker, using less hardware than other image serving products.

Many public sites now offer data via a tile based delivery method, where a complete image or map consists of a number of smaller image tiles (rather than a single image). Typically, this type of imagery delivery has been hardware intensive, requiring a multitude of servers or caching systems for good performance on high-demand sites. Optimized Tile Delivery enables a single ERDAS Image Web Server to replace an entire server farm and/or caching system when providing tile-based geographic data.

In 1999, Image Web Server introduced high-speed ECWP streaming imagery protocol, enabling a single standard server to provide imagery information to 5.000 or more users on a single physical server. Optimized Tile Delivery continues ERDAS Image Web Server’s pioneering legacy of high-speed image delivery to thousands of users, without horrendous hardware costs.

“For any organization providing a high-demand, public facing website, Optimized Tile Delivery will save significant hardware and systems management,” said Mladen Stojic, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Marketing, Erdas.

Also in this release, cached data from the ECWP web browser plug-in now persists over different browser visits. The client-side data caching features are configurable, enabling a user to increase or decrease the amount of space that the cache consumes.

Increasing flexibility, Erdas Image Web Server now provides access to Erdas Compressed Wavelet (ECW) files to any Esri ArcGIS Server installed on the same physical system. With Erdas Image Web Server, ArcGIS Server can consume ECW files when delivering services. The two servers work in tandem to provide optimal delivery of geospatial information, with both servers utilizing the powerful ECW format.

This release also includes administration console improvements and support for 8-bit PNG files in WMS/ImageX.

For more information about Erdas or its products and services, visit www.erdas.com.