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Optimization techniques for wide-area networks (WANs) can improve most organizations' application response times, particularly where network latency is high, which is often due to centralization of servers and IT resources. Typically, WAN optimization controllers (WOCs) serve to prevent network latency having a severe impact on the performance of applications and underlying protocols. Through data reduction and prioritization techniques, WOCs can also help organizations avoid costly bandwidth upgrades.
The WOC market is rapidly maturing, but it is still dynamic with a high level of vendor innovation. This has led to different vendors offering different combinations of features. So, before choosing a vendor, ensure you understand the applications and services running on your network, and the protocols they use. Also conduct a detailed analysis of your network traffic to identify specific problems — for example, excessive latency, bandwidth oversubscription or lack of prioritization for certain types of traffic. Finally, insist on a real-life trial before committing to any purchase.
At present, WOC capabilities are delivered by dedicated equipment, usually purchased by the user organization. As the market develops, we expect to see increasing deployment of managed WAN optimization services, and some integration of WOC features into other network equipment such as routers. Our advice on stand-alone WOC equipment selection should therefore be considered in light of these anticipated changes in the market, and we recommend that selection is made on the basis of relatively short payback times (typically less than three years) and on current and near-term product capabilities.
Note: as the inclusion criteria and feature expectations have changed since our "Magic Quadrant for WAN Optimization Controllers, 2006," one cannot compare a vendor's absolute position on the 2006 Magic Quadrant with its position in the 2007 edition. A shift in the absolute position of a vendor since the 2006 version does not imply that Gartner's opinion of the vendor has improved or deteriorated.
WAN optimization is about improving the performance of business applications over WAN connections. Most networks carry a variety of types of traffic, of differing characteristics and importance. Many organizations are striving to manage this traffic to optimize the response times of critical applications and reduce costs, given that bandwidth continues to represent a significant proportion of operating expenditure for wide-area data networks. But the cost of bandwidth isn't the only consideration — matching the allocation of WAN resources to business needs is also important. And as resources are increasingly centralized, minimizing the effect of latency on application response times is becoming a critical requirement. In addition, new application environments, like browser-based applications and Web services, can put an unexpected strain on the network.
Different types of traffic and IT architecture present both difficulties and opportunities for improving the response times of essential applications. For example:
* Traffic that isn't time-sensitive, like e-mail, backups and personal Web access, can swamp WAN links, leading to slow response times from business-critical applications.
* Global centralization of branch office servers and data centers can expose latency-sensitive protocols, again leading to slow response times.
* File transfers, operating system patch distribution and similar applications, such as the delivery of training videos, can quickly saturate WANs.
* Repeated transmission of the same, or similar, files, objects or data patterns can create opportunities for data compression.
Since optimizing overall application response times is a requirement for many organizations, this Magic Quadrant reviews vendors that address the common need to make more efficient and effective use of wide-area connections, regardless of the type of traffic or application. The predominant need is still to optimize the connection between users in remote branch locations and IT centralized resources. However, we are also beginning to see the emergence of requirements to optimize connections between data centers, and between single remote users and centralized resources. In addition, we see early signs of a need to optimize traffic to mobile devices.
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