A sure sign the WAN optimization market is maturing is the availability of gear aimed at enterprises that don’t necessarily have the largest networks or the biggest IT budgets. The latest vendor to expand its entry-level offerings is A10 Networks, which last week unveiled two new versions of its application acceleration switch: the AX Series 2000 and the AX Series 2100.

A10’s AX Series application acceleration switches combine server load balancing and monitoring capabilities. Central to each model is the company’s Advanced Core Operating System (ACOS), which is tuned for multiple CPUs with multiple cores and enables functions including TCP connection acceleration, SSL acceleration and packet buffer management.

Both the Series 2000 and Series 2100 models are 2U appliances. The AX 2000 has two CPUs, 2GB of memory, eight Gigabit copper ports, two Gigabit fiber ports, and an 80GB hard drive. The AX 2100 has four CPUs, 2GB of memory, eight Gigabit copper ports, four Gigabit fiber ports, and dual 80GB Raid 1 hard drives.

A10 was founded in 2004 by CEO Lee Chen, who previously co-founded Foundry Networks and Centillion Networks. In May, A10’s AX Series appliances took top honors in the “Best of Interop” awards program, in the application networks and performance category.

In other WAN optimization news, Certeon last week announced it secured $15 million in venture funding. The Series B round, led by RRE Ventures, will be used to expand sales and marketing, the company says. Sigma Partners, Globespan Capital, Dow Employees' Pension Plan and Union Carbide Employees' Pension Plan also participated in the round.

Launched in February 2006, Certeon offers its S-Series application acceleration appliances, which are outfitted with the company’s Application Acceleration Blueprints. The blueprints are built to optimize specific application environments, including Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Office and EMC Documentum and Oracle E-Business.

Lastly, to round out the latest WAN optimization news, Riverbed Technology and Citrix Systems separately have announced new certification programs for users of their respective technologies.

Riverbed created the Certified Solutions Professional program to recognize individuals who demonstrate competency in the theory, configuration, maintenance and troubleshooting of its Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) product suite. RiOS is the software platform that powers Riverbed's line of Steelhead appliances.

Ann Bednarz is associate news editor at Network World.