We are now six races into the Formula 1 season and I’m proud to say that I consider myself a rabid fan. Not an expert, nor an analyst, but a solid fan that is slightly despondent when there isn’t a race during the weekend. I’m comfortable discussing constructors, drivers, the 107% rule, and I’m definitely getting the hang of the qualifying process.
So just when I think I have the lay of the land and I can hang with the big boys, all bets are off. It’s Monaco, and it is like no other Grand Prix that I have experienced. Just the site of the track (road) has me perplexed and the twisty turns and tiny streets have me closing my eyes as the drivers careen around them. Suddenly a new term rears its head and is being uttered by my favorite F1 Guru and Speed Network commentator, Bob Varsha, every 2 minutes. Chicane. Pardon? Swimming pool chicane? HUH?? I’m totally stumped.
According to Wikipedia, a chicane is an artificial feature creating extra turns in a road, used in motor racing and on streets to slow traffic for safety.
Hold up. What do you mean you want to slow the drivers down? That seems counterintuitive to me. At Internap, we spend a lot of energy making the Internet faster. It’s essentially in our DNA with our Managed Internet Route Optimizer™ technology – MIRO. In F1 terms, think of MIRO as a DRS zone (that’s Drag Reduction System for the F1 newbies out there) that is always active and never shuts off. Wicked awesome right? Here are a few highlights of our technology:
- MIRO is route and web acceleration software that works with BGP in an automated manner, updating routing tables with the best performing routes available.
- MIRO provides a superior alternative to the manual route selection approach that many data centers employ to compensate for BGP’s inherent deficiencies.
- MIRO gathers data and dynamically responds with intelligent route adjustments, ensuring that data is traveling along the fastest, most reliable route.
So while I try to wrap my head around swimming pool chicanes and other not-so-common F1 terminology, we’ll keep facilitating blazing-fast Internet speeds on our end.
To learn more about Internet acceleration technologies and how we can drive your IT Infrastructure, FAST, download our IP Buyer’s Guide eBook.
Image Credit: Sahara Force India Formula One Team
