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Netstat -vat by Sean Michael Kerner (bio)

A command line view of IT



Interop: WAN optimization vendor rumble

By Sean Michael Kerner on May 19, 2009 3:03 PM
wan.controller_small.jpg
From the 'agree to disagree' files:

LAS VEGAS. The WAN optimization market is one competitive market. It's a fact that was very evident in a panel comparing WAN optimization controllers at Interop.

 The panel included (from left to right): Peter Schmidt, CTO for North America, Ipanema, Satya Vardharajan, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Access and Acceleration Group, Citrix Systems, Inc, Apurva Dave, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Riverbed, Kenneth Salchow, Senior Technical Marketing Manager, F5,  Mark Weiner, Director, Data Center Solutions, Cisco Speaker and Mark Urban, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Blue Coat.

Each of the vendors claimed they were doing something better or different than their competitors, but sitting in the audience much of the talk and claims sounded similar to me. Both Citrix and Riverbed spokespersons highlighted their application partnerships with Microsoft, which is also something that Cisco has.

At various points each of the vendors claimed they were the 'only' vendor to do 'something; -- which is something that others on the panel disagreed with. For example, the panelists disagreed on who had better Citrix virtual desktop acceleration and optimization capabilities. F5's Salchow took issue with Blue Coat's Urban claim about who has more Citrix experience.

Citrix's Vardharajan shrugged them both off claiming that Citrix itself has better visibility into the ICA (Citrix's  format for Virtual Desktop) and has better granular control.

Cisco's Weiner tried to take the high road where he could throughout the conversation. 
"I agree with Citrix and others on the panel that the WAN optimization market is evolving and we're now at a cross roads," Weiner said. "I agree that it's not just a point technology it's part of a full solution for enabling application delivery."
Sitting in the session, listening to the panelists, makes it clear to me that there is no doubt a good deal of confusion (driven partially by competing marketing claims) about WAN optimization solutions. No doubt WAN optimization can add value, but the real key for enterprise users and data centers will be in testing and evaluating which solution makes the most sense for their own particular needs.

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2 Comments

Mark Weiner said:

Sean,

Great article, and I couldn't agree more. We do sound a lot alike sometimes, though the customer experience and results really "can very greatly".

Take a look at the blog posting I did that agrees with much of your observations:

http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/comments/wan_optimization_at_interop_more_of_the_same_or_totally_different/#more

Cheers, Mark

May 26, 2009 9:00 PM
Shawn Cooney said:

Sean, Thanks for keeping the discussion going.

If you think that it’s hard figuring out the differences among WAN optimization vendors during that panel, just think how IT managers must feel when trying to solve their real-world problems! Most WAN optimization solutions are pretty stable and hard to distinguish when focusing on just the performance improvement and “plumbing.” It requires looking below the surface at those basic elements or resources (system, software, storage, management, connectivity, etc.) which combine to make up flexible, agile, and virtualized enterprise infrastructures.

Cisco's representative Mark Weiner got it partly right when he said, “It is key to integrate WAN optimization in with the underlying physical infrastructure...” Integration of WAN optimization technology is important, but it does not go far enough in terms of what we would recommend that an IT manager consider. Some questions that IT managers should be asking themselves while evaluating WAN optimization solutions as part of an enterprise environment are:

1. “How can I deliver corporate information to my users as a seamless service?”
2. “Can I implement, scale, and manage WAN optimization like any other software-based service?”
3. “What is my upgrade path in delivering WAN optimization via hardware appliances (today) as I move toward a more cost-efficient virtualized infrastructure?”
4. “Does my WAN optimization solution truly leverage the benefits of virtualization?”
5. “What is this WAN optimization solution going to cost me one, two, three years from now?”

Let me put it another way: we believe that WAN optimization needs to be part of an enterprise’s virtualization stack in order to be cost effective and flexible enough to deliver real business value.   In short it must be software residing on a virtual machine. Introducing yet another WOC appliance into an enterprise’s infrastructure that is not integral to the supported virtual machine operating system stack will only create more plumbing and more cost.

Best
Shawn

May 28, 2009 9:54 AM

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