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Sep 2006
Need for Speed: The network is the new application-performance battleground
The 451 Group is predicting a sustained shift in the way that geographically distributed enterprises design their application infrastructure over the next few years. In particular, a variety of demographic, commercial and workplace trends will drive consolidation of server resources, with the resources moving away from dispersed branch offices and back into centralized datacenters. Unsurprisingly, this move will impact many areas of system design and purchasing, but the effect will be especially felt by those managing and building wide area networks (WANs) designed to connect the dispersed users with the applications they are using. This will lead to the increased adoption of a class of devices that 451 analysts call network-based application accelerators.
Many enterprise applications were not designed to run efficiently over a WAN. Limited bandwidth, excessive latency and traffic congestion may radically degrade application performance – and users' patience. Indiscriminately throwing bandwidth at the problem by buying additional network capacity involves significant recurring expense and only directly addresses the first of these three issues. Addressing all of them requires altering the flow of network traffic generated by the application, and doing that without rewriting the application itself requires some network-based intelligence – the network-based application accelerators.
There are two complementary approaches to making application performance faster and more predictable over lengthy, bandwidth-constrained WAN links. The 451 Group calls them datacenter communications accelerators (DCCAs) and WAN traffic optimizers (WTOs). DCCAs are principally designed to take workloads off constrained servers and other resources in datacenters. By contrast, WTOs are principally designed to make the best use of constrained network resources. The 451 Group believes WTOs hold the greatest potential for improving the performance of a wide range of network-delivered applications, and expects to see much more market activity here.
This 451 Special Report sets out to clear up some of the confusion currently muddying the market and to chart future trends, with their associated commercial opportunities and threats. It also highlights what 451 analysts believe are the disruptive opportunities for entrepreneurial innovators, and it looks at the startups and incumbents pushing into the application-delivery area. The report concludes with an examination of the recent M&A activity in this market and looks ahead at the drivers for the next round of potential acquisitions.
This 91-page report was researched and written by Steve Steinke, Senior Analyst and Sector Head, Networks; Andy Dornan, Analyst, Networks; Jim Davis, Senior Analyst, Networks; Simon Robinson, Senior Analyst and Sector Head, Storage; Brenon Daly, Financial Analyst; Lee Bruno, Editorial Director, Special Reports; and Chris Noble, Director of Research.
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About The 451 Group
The 451 Group is an independent technology industry analyst company focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation. The company’s analysts provide critical and timely insight into the market and competitive dynamics of innovation in emerging technology segments. Clients of the company – at vendor, investor, service- provider and end-user organizations – rely on 451 insight to support both strategic and tactical decision-making for competitive advantage.
The 451 Group is headquartered in New York, with offices in key locations, including San Francisco, London and Boston. For additional information on the company or to apply for trial access to its services, go to: www.the451group.com
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