For the third installment in our "ADS Customers Speak" series we ask Juniper customers to share their experiences with Juniper's WX solution.

Juniper got into the distributed (a.k.a. dual-ended) ADS market by buying Peribit, the layer 3 compression and caching pioneer. Juniper integrated the Peribit product in 2005 and renamed it the Juniper WX. Juniper's WX application acceleration solution optimizes traffic flows by applying compression and caching techniques, quality of service (QoS) enforcement, bandwidth management, path optimization, and TCP acceleration, as well as acceleration of HTTP, Microsoft CIFS and Microsoft MAPI-based applications.

The WX appliance uses sophisticated compression technology that captures data patterns of almost any size and catalogs them in a dictionary. When the WX recognizes subsequent instances of a pattern, it replaces the pattern with a reference to the dictionary. Even portions of files are recognized as a pattern-so if a file is a modified version of another file, large file "chunks" will be common and therefore will not be retransmitted across the WAN.

Reducing WAN bandwidth demand enables more users to share the same link, often alleviating the need for WAN link upgrades as traffic grows. In an office where the same data is viewed by multiple users, bandwidth savings and performance improvement can be dramatic.

Juniper's WX product also implements QoS that recognizes packet markings established by upstream sources, and prioritizes packets on out-bound queues accordingly. Implementing QoS ensures that real-time and interactive traffic experience low latency and perform reliably even if the network is congested.

TCP acceleration overcomes traffic delays caused by long latency links. By strategically modifying the behavior of TCP, the WX can increase data throughput for each application flow, shortening response times. Juniper's WX products enable global reach by offering excellent user experiences even in extremely remote, infrastructure-challenged rural areas.

If you have deployed a Juniper WX solution tell us what you think. Does it live up to your expectations? What were your impressions? A simple "I like it", "I have mixed feelings", or "I hate it" response is fine--but if you have insight to share with the community, then talk all you want. You can post a reply to this blog using your name or anonymously.

If you are using another vendor's product, your turn will come in a future blog.