The application acceleration and WAN optimization markets in 2006 exploded, and now as we move into the new year there is much speculation as to what is to come in 2007.

One vendor, Exinda Networks, thinks the time might be right to establish standards in the market. The company recently announced its Unified Performance Management (UPM) platform, which the vendor says will optimize the performance of IP communications over the wide-area. The Australian vendor, which is branching out more in the U.S., says the idea is to take its - and competitors such as Packeteer, Peribit (now part of Juniper) and Cisco products - technology to the next level with the use of interoperable standards. The premise is that all the single-purpose appliances populating customer IT shops would be able to work together and become integrated, rather than customers scrapping previous investments as the market consolidates.

Exinda says UPM "incorporates all facets of WAN optimization, application acceleration, application visibility, application response time measurements and a ubiquitous global management facility."

Michael Grace, vice president of international business development at Exinda, says the UPM initiative will at first be a part of the company's own product line. The company offers appliances to accelerate traffic between corporate and branch offices, but it does so at a low price point - less than $1,000, Grace says. Following the use of UPM in its own gear, he says, Exinda expects it will see other vendors come on board with the standards effort.

"The first manufacturers that I expect to engage with will be the associated vendors in the areas of VoIP equipment, streaming media, application delivery systems manufacturers as well as WAN application developers," Grace says. "High value network services providers, ISPs and telcos, depending on their service delivery quality positioning, will also engage with and endorse industry initiatives to deliver more efficient and dynamic WAN and Internet access performance."

Ann Bednarz is associate news editor at Network World.