Applications have a need for WAN speed

Vendors are loading their gear with new features, but the core need for WAN speed should still guide WOC buying decisions, says one expert in a live Network World chat.

Application performance management and WAN acceleration are hard problems to solve and are part of a market segment loaded with vendor mythology from players like Cisco, Riverbed, Blue Coat, Sliver Peak Systems and others. Recently Dr. Jim Metzler was the guest for a live Network World chat. Widely known as one of the industry's foremost gurus of WAN acceleration, Jim is also a sought-after speaker and consultant. He has logged over 28 years of experience with network technology and its business applications. Jim is vice president of Ashton, Metzler & Associates, co-author of Network World's Wide Area Networking newsletter, and the moderator for the Network & Application Acceleration track at Network World's traveling event, IT Roadmap. What follows is the full transcript of the chat.

Jim_Metzler: Hello - welcome everybody!

WAN_MAN: Hi Jim: what question should be asked of vendors when evaluating products that people typically don't ask?

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Application performance management and WAN acceleration are hard problems to solve and are part of a market segment loaded with vendor mythology from players like Cisco, Riverbed, Blue Coat, Sliver Peak Systems and others. Recently Dr. Jim Metzler was the guest for a live Network World chat. Widely known as one of the industry's foremost gurus of WAN acceleration, Jim is also a sought-after speaker and consultant. He has logged over 28 years of experience with network technology and its business applications. Jim is vice president of Ashton, Metzler & Associates, co-author of Network World's Wide Area Networking newsletter, and the moderator for the Network & Application Acceleration track at Network World's traveling event, IT Roadmap. What follows is the full transcript of the chat.

Jim_Metzler: Hello - welcome everybody!

WAN_MAN: Hi Jim: what question should be asked of vendors when evaluating products that people typically don't ask?

Jim_Metzler: People should ask their vendors about what has gone wrong in previous deployments. We have all been around long enough to know that things do tend to go wrong at least occasionally. For example, some people have found that once they deploy a WAN optimization controller (WOC) that they lose management visibility. [Editor's note: compare application optimization technologies via Network World's Buyer's Guides.]

Cognoid: How does the BlueCoat WAFS compete now that they have acquired Packeteer?

Jim_Metzler: This is a fascinating question. Some people look at this acquisition as a sign of industry consolidation. I don't. I see that the major players in the application delivery market have very different approaches. Blue Coat traditionally had a focus on security. The acquisition of Packeteer gives them yet additional information on applications which I believe they will use for both optimization and security. In contrast, you don't see a vendor like Riverbed talking as much about security. They have, however, recently begun to talk about storage.

Moderator-Julie: While Jim is typing the answers to your questions, I will post the answer to some sent in earlier. Pre-submitted question: We are constantly battling latency across our MPLS network. We have retail stores that connect to the HQ data center. How do we improve WAN performance? Do we need to implement QoS? Should we use a different WAN protocol for our Cisco routers?

Jim_Metzler: MPLS comes with service classes that promise guaranteed latency limits. For example, a given service class may promise that latency will not exceed 50 ms. If your problem is that you are not getting what you were promised, that is an issue to take up with your vendor or, based on your contract, to possibly change vendors. If the issue is that the latency limits that you are promised is not good enough, I need to know more about what the problem is. For example, if the issue is that you are running chatty protocols over the WAN, then a WAN optimization appliance might be helpful.