Load Balancer

The Blackboard (News - Alert) Learn educational platform just got a whole lot more secure and efficient thanks to a little help from Coyote Point System’s load balancer technology.

Today, the provider of application delivery and acceleration solutions announced that its Equalizer Series line of Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) now deliver a certified encrypted and accelerated solution for the Blackboard Learn platform. Equalizer ADC (News - Alert) products will be responsible for handling SSL offloading requirements for Blackboard Learn installations running version 9.1 Service Pack 8 (SP8). 

“Coyote Point is extremely excited about our enhanced solution for the Blackboard Learn platform,” said Jim Puchbauer (News - Alert), director of Marketing and Alliances for Coyote Point. “Our Equalizer line of ADCs combines enterprise-class application delivery and acceleration features and an affordable price that makes us a very good fit for the education market.”

“We are pleased to offer our customers a secure and reliable option that fits today’s restricted budgets,” he added. “Education is an important focus for Coyote Point and Blackboard is a premier solution provider to educational institutions around the globe. Our partnership reinforces our commitment to ensure that our mutual customers can reap the benefits that our combined technologies have to offer.” 

Those customers that run Blackboard Learn 9.1 and have made the switch to SP8 can now rely on the Equalizer to provide both load balancing and SSL offloading services, which eradicates the need for separate solutions. By tapping the Equalizer to provide and manage the encryption over the network, users will experience a significant increase in server performance and application response time, according to company officials.

The load balancer technology is touted for not only being able to improve overall experience but for also allowing users to be supported on the current servers without compromising security or application response times.

Coyote Point, a Blackboard Signature Partner, participated in Blackboard’s beta program and performed configuration testing of the latest software release of Blackboard Learn with Equalizer to guarantee that customers can enjoy seamless compatibility and the highest level of performance. While previous load balancing methods could be cost prohibitive, with Coyote Point’s GUI, customers can quickly and more easily enable SSL offloading and acceleration. 

One of the main benefits of Coyote Point’s load balancer technology is that it provides for scaling and offers custom encryption offload hardware that can handle up to 14,000 SSL transactions per second. Offloading the CPU-intensive SSL handshake and encryption process from the application servers significantly improves server and application performance, company officials said.

A few months ago, Coyote Point announced its partnership with Blackboard, a move that allowed Coyote Point to deliver its Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) for Blackboard Learning Management Systems.

“Blackboard is a leader in the educational marketplace where we also have a significant customer base. Our Blackboard Signature Partnership allows us to provide enhanced solutions to increase the performance and availability of Blackboard platforms,” said Puchbauer. “The Blackboard relationship also gives us more avenues to communicate our solutions to those educational users who would benefit the most.”