WAN Optimization
Posted by: Peter Christensen in Network Management, Network Monitoring, Networking News, WAN
There has been a lot of buzz around WAN optimization over the past few months, with numerous mentions of what WAN optimization is and what it brings to the table. On the surface, it is certainly a cool technology, but it is a technology that requires some additional thought before implementing. It is certainly another great tool in the network managers arsenal.
WAN optimization should be considered as another component of an overall network management strategy. Why do I say this? Well there are several reasons, first of all, WAN optimization only provides a capability for a small subset of the network, WAN links. Certainly organizations want to use their bandwidth more efficiently and cost effectively, but if the links were not properly engineered and provisioned in the first place, WAN optimization will not help.
If anything, WAN optimization actually builds the case for more effective management of local networks connected by WAN links. Since WAN optimization only looks between edge routers, a more complete and consolidated end-to-end perspective is required and network management and monitoring provides that holistic view. No only does a network manager need to look at device status, but also the infrastructure as a whole; including devices, applications, and bandwidth. Network management and monitoring is the elemental solution that brings it all together in one place. For those organizations that are thinking about implementing WAN optimization, be sure that you have an overall network management and monitoring strategy or even better, a solution in place to get the whole picture and not just pieces of it.
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June 11th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
You make some great points and I agree that network management and monitoring are key tools for troubleshooting and maintaining the network from LAN to WAN.
However, I wouldn’t minimize the scope of WAN optimization’s role in a network environment. While WAN’s are indeed only a subset of the overall network, they have become the critical infrastructure that enables businesses to function. If a WAN link goes down, business slows to a crawl and often halts. If the performance of the WAN and associated applications is poor then business initiatives are impacted as well. There are over 6 million branch offices in the US alone and over 50% of employees work outside of headquarters. Add the mobile worker component with VPN infrastructures and you are talking about a distributed infrastructure that supports the globally distributed business. Think about the services that run over these WANs. Email, CRM, ERP, web services, file sharing, data backup and replication, VoIP, and the list goes on and on.
WAN optimization has become a critical component of this globally distributed business climate. I have had the privilege of being on the pioneering team at Riverbed Technology when we shipped our first groundbreaking Steelhead appliance product in May of 2004. We have since been in rapid growth mode, amassing over 4000 customers across all 7 continents. These 4000+ organizations look at Riverbed as a critical part of their overall network, application, and IT infrastructure. I see network monitoring as an important tool that is used before WAN optimization and after WAN optimization to help maintain health and reliability of the overall network.
Bob Gilbert
Riverbed Technology
bgilbert@riverbed.com
June 16th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Carley…
What other topics are you keen on?…