 Network OptimizationThis newsletter is sponsored by Blue CoatNetwork World's Network Optimization Newsletter, 06/19/07The Vista effectBy Ann BednarzWindows Vista is adding new wrinkles to WAN optimization. For one, Microsoft’s Vista client operating system incorporates a number of features aimed at improving the performance of applications over the WAN, including a rewritten TCP/IP stack and a new Common Internet File System (CIFS) implementation. Microsoft also worked security enhancements into Vista, including server and domain isolation. This security feature lets administrators create virtual networks of Windows computers that adhere to policies -- set in Microsoft’s Active Directory -- which determine if in-bound connections should be accepted.
I wrote a story published this week in Network World that details the network impact of some of these Vista features. Analysts Joe Skorupa of Gartner and Eric Siegel of Burton Group weighed in with their opinions about how the WAN optimization market might change as a result. When I was researching the story, I had a chance to chat with executives from a few WAN optimization vendors to get their insight on the network performance impact of Vista. Here are some of the issues they highlighted: * Consistency is required. Some of the key new features built into Vista won’t be of any benefit to enterprises unless both ends of a connection can support these new features, says Bobby Guhasarkar, senior manager of product marketing at Juniper Networks. For example, the congestion control algorithms in the new TCP/IP stack and the new version of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol used in CIFS (which lets multiple data blocks be sent over the WAN simultaneously) each require Vista or Longhorn Server to be running on both ends of a WAN link to be effective. “Any time you make something new on one side of a two-way conversation, the other side also has to understand all these new things,” Guhasarkar says. * Expect some interference. Server and domain isolation could require a number of companies to adapt their WAN optimization techniques, says Gareth Taube, vice president of marketing at WAN acceleration vendor Certeon. With server and domain isolation, “every packet that’s transmitted by a Vista client has got a little header which authenticates the data in that packet,” Taube says. “What the operating system is doing -- and for good reason -- is asking ‘Do you want to send this data? Is this allowed?’” The problem is that the extra header interferes with classic acceleration techniques which rely on pattern matching to identify traffic that has already been seen. “If you have now embedded in each packet a special and unique authentication header, what you’ve done is made every packet unique,” he says. According to Taube, the way to get around this issue is to use WAN optimization techniques that are more content-aware and can look at application objects rather than simply packet patterns. “I think this will be a major issue unless corporations have the type of application acceleration devices that can tell what content is and decipher it.” * Don’t rush in. Enterprises are taking their time rather than rushing to deploy Vista, says James Messer, director of technical marketing at Network General, which makes tools for monitoring and analyzing network and application performance. “We in the industry told Microsoft we want a lot of things out of Vista, and Microsoft delivered,” Messer says. “Because there are so many changes in the way Vista operates -- its interactions with applications and the way its networking stack operates, for example -- enterprises are sitting back and realizing if they begin implementing this, there could potentially be a large number of changes that will occur with the performance and availability of critical business applications.” Indeed, Vista likely will change the game for enterprise IT managers as well as WAN optimization vendors, particularly when the client OS is deployed along with Microsoft’s forthcoming Longhorn Server. While the new operating systems may be disruptive for a while, the payoff will be in improved application performance over the WAN under certain conditions. The good news is, Microsoft and a slew of WAN optimization vendors have been working together to make enterprise Vista deployments go as smoothly as possible -- and I’ll get more into that in the next newsletter.
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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 Blue CoatARCHIVEArchive 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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