How long will it be before ubiquitous, high speed bandwidth
and Windows branch caching make WAN optimisation technology obsolete?
We used to be told we could never ever have enough internet
bandwidth, but with today's mesh of DSL, fibre optic and wireless coverage, is
that maxim still true?
Lamentably, there are still pockets of the UK within
which, because of low population density, it does not make economical sense for
network providers to deliver any high speed links at all. But where that return
on investment calculation does yield a positive result, businesses and
consumers alike are often spoilt for choice in their choice of supplier, bearer
technology, data rate and tariff.
Most complaints about wide area network (WAN) and internet
performance these days concern lack of availability rather than speed – incidents
where the whole thing goes down rather than slows to a crawl.
All of which may be a cause for alarm among WAN optimisation
and application delivery companies, which include Expand Networks, Juniper
Networks and Riverbed Technology to name but a few. These vendors specialise in
providing compression and caching technology designed to speed up the
performance of network links connecting one office to another – especially
pertinent in corporate environments where remote, branch or distributed offices
access applications and data stored on a central server based at another
location.
When these WAN optimisation companies first appeared, the
idea was simple - to make the most out of the WAN bandwidth already available
by providing a pair, or multiple pairs, of easy to install appliances at each
end of the link which involved less capital outlay than paying for additional
bandwidth from the service provider.
Even in the days when expensive ATM based leased lines and
SDSL services were only available to the few, the WAN optimisation argument for
many was debatable. Now, when 100Mbit/s and gigabit Ethernet are more widely
available, and telcos like BT are upgrading backbone infrastructure to handle
greater volumes of data traffic between cities and continents, it can be
tenuous to say the least.
Moreover, Microsoft has integrated branch caching technology
into its Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 desktop, making a portion of the
same technology free to own for anybody running those operating systems.
If WAN optimisation and application delivery technology can
be successfully allied to private cloud computing and business continuity
initiatives, it may have a chance. Otherwise, we may be looking at a once
buoyant market heading into terminal decline.
By Martin Courtney
