 Network OptimizationThis newsletter is sponsored by NTT CommunicationsNetwork World's Network Optimization Newsletter, 06/05/07Getting the most from big pipesBy Ann BednarzI’ve written a lot lately about integrated devices and the trend to bundle multiple traffic management, security and routing capabilities in a single appliance to help combat branch office clutter. But not all WAN optimization vendors are moving in the branch-office-in-a-box direction. A company with a different objective is Silver Peak Systems, which continues to sharpen its focus on high capacity WAN links and their distinct performance, scalability and configuration challenges. Silver Peak this week is due to unveil Version 2.0 of the software that runs in its NX family of appliances and Global Management Systems devices. The new version is aimed at improving application performance over big pipes and simplifying the management of distributed NX devices.
High capacity WAN links -- those 45Mbps and higher -- have characteristics that separate them from smaller branch office connections, says Jeff Aaron, director of product marketing at Silver Peak. They typically involve larger volumes of data, more types of applications, larger numbers of simultaneous user sessions, and more complex network configurations requiring asymmetric routing and advanced QoS policies, for example. “Branch offices traditionally are going to have basic file, e-mail, and other office productivity tools that are usually client-server applications,” Aaron says. “With bigger pipes, you’re now introducing more server-to-server applications, like backup and replication and SQL. These fat pipes have very different characteristics than their skinny brethren.” In Version 2.0, Silver Peak enhanced its Network Memory technology for doing disk-based data reduction at high speeds. Data reduction can reduce over 95% of WAN traffic by eliminating the transfer of duplicate data, Silver Peak says. “Data reduction on these big pipes is pretty difficult to do because you’re required to do lots of read and writes, at very high speeds, and you’re writing to disks, which can take time if you don’t doing it correctly. It can potentially introduce a new latency element that you obviously want to avoid,” Aaron says. The new version of Network Memory features better pattern-recognition capabilities -- which are particularly useful for improving the performance of applications that do “interactive saves,” such as Microsoft Excel, Aaron says. “Whenever you modify data in an Excel file and resave it, that change is actually randomly distributed somewhere in the file, in terms of bytes. It’s not in a very predictable space -- it’s not at the end, it’s not at the beginning, it’s just randomly sent throughout the file. So unless you have very granular data reduction that can actually look at those bytes and quickly figure out which bytes are different, you’re not going to be able to detect that as granularly.” On the management front, Version 2.0 now features a centralized policy engine that lets enterprises use common templates across numerous appliances to make configuration and management of QoS, routing and optimization policies easier. “In the past, you had to touch the appliances individually,” Aaron says. “You could do it from a central console, but you had to do more custom tweaking per location.” In addition, the new software enables NX appliances to automatically download configuration settings, such as IP addresses, QoS policies and optimization instructions to make deployment easier on IT administrators and reduce configuration errors. Version 2.0 is currently shipping with all new Silver Peak NX appliances and Global Management Systems appliances.
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| Contact the author: Ann Bednarz is an associate news editor at Network World responsible for editing daily news content. She previously covered enterprise applications, e-commerce and telework trends for Network World. E-mail Ann. This newsletter is sponsored by NTT CommunicationsARCHIVEArchive of the Network Optimization Newsletter. BONUS FEATUREIT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESTo subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007 |
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