Is ICAP a complex protocol?
ICAP provides a very simple operation to vector content between caches and network-based applications servers. Because no proprietary APIs or software developer toolkits are required, ICAP will dramatically reduce implementation cost and time-to-market for software developers and service providers. By being standards-based, ICAP has the potential to be adopted by range of vendors, as indicated by the number of companies presently supporting its development. ICAP also leverages the latest Internet infrastructure developments including the cache and Internet content delivery convergence. The principal advantages of ICAP include: • It is scalable, allowing several ICAP servers to service requests & responses from a single cache. • It is open: anyone can implement, which extends a caching server to provide new services at the edge of the network. • It is more efficient than adding one Web proxy per service.
