Results of our WAN acceleration product feedback are in, and here is a quick summary of what we heard. For starters, if this were the application delivery system version of American Idol, Riverbed’s Steelhead would win. Of the 220 or so postings, about one third (73) were favorable comments about Riverbed—some of them rather amusing like: “. . . we installed a Steelhead in California and one in Geneva as a demo, and the performance gain was so drastic that the Geneva users asked if we could “add a Riverbed” to a slow printer, or perhaps to their clogged sink.”

Cisco’s WAAS was on the receiving end of the second highest number of comments (42), most of which were favorable although the positive comments were interspersed with lively barbs written by anonymous Cisco detractors, several of whom where clearly Riverbed devotees. One Riverbed fan went so far as to assemble a 1500 word collection of negative Cisco WAAS anecdotes. We interpret the Cisco bashing as a sign that Cisco is a force to be reckoned with in the application delivery space.

We were surprised that not a solitary soul commented on Packeteer—not even to say we’ll miss your quirky pinwheel logo. It’s a sad tribute to the ADS trailblazer. The only Packeteer posting we received was from a former employee saying that Packeteer’s iShared/iShaper products have been withdrawn from the market since the Blue Coat acquisition. If Blue Coat bought Packeteer for its loyal customer base, they may be disappointed.

Another old timer in this market, Expand, received a mere nine comments, most of them from VARs and integrators. Expand’s VAR and integrator partners give Expand’s Compass Accelerator high marks for being solid and field proven. They laud the company’s technical competence and rate it well as a partner. But one would think that such a long track record would result in a longer list of comments. Could it be that Expand’s technical competence is not matched by its marketing prowess?

Blue Coat, a relative newcomer to the distributed ADS space received the third largest number of comments (28), all quite flattering and some catchy like “Blue Coat Kills 2 Birds with 1U”, and another (with possible typo) “Couldn’t love without them!” One Blue Coat customer describes using Blue Coat to enable Internet service to US troops in Iraq. “Our soldiers have already prepared themselves to make the ultimate sacrifice for us. We felt it was our duty to provide our troops with access to their loved ones. Only Blue Coat could provide a solution at a price they would expect to pay in the states.”

Silver Peak and Juniper ranked fourth in number of postings, both with 17 comments each. The Silver Peak feedback was largely positive, with consistent themes around ease of deployment, management, scalability and strong support. Juniper, on the other hand, got decidedly mixed reviews. Several comments indicated that Juniper is falling short of expectations for product features and support, creating the impression that WAN acceleration is not a priority for Juniper.

The 14 (all positive) comments posted about Exinda win prizes for brevity. One enthusiastic reseller said it was “the best thing to come out of Australia since [actress] Cate Blanchett”. Exinda’s visibility received a number of kudos, with one poster referring to it as “brilliant”.

View the complete library of comments for yourself-and feel free to add your own points of view:

• Blue Coat Proxy SG
• Cisco WAAS 
• Exinda X800
• Expand Compass
• Juniper WX 
• Packeteer PacketShaper/iShaper
• Riverbed Steelhead
  
• Silverpeak NX