Exinda Networks is continuing its push to become a formidable player in the WAN optimization market, most recently unveiling a new high-end device for data center deployments and a new low-end device for branch offices.

At the high end, Exinda’s 7800 appliance is designed to help companies reduce file transfer times for server consolidation, disaster recovery and data storage applications. It can accelerate traffic at 155Mbps full duplex and deliver throughput of up to 1Gbps. The appliance also features 1.5TB RAID disk storage for caching repetitive WAN traffic and capturing application monitoring data.

“The 7800 essentially brings us into new markets like server consolidation, disaster recovery and storage -- areas where we didn’t predominately play before,” says Con Nikolouzakis, Exinda’s CEO.

At the low end, Exinda unveiled its 1710 appliance, which is designed to boost application performance for branch office employees accessing applications over the WAN.

The Exinda 1710 is suited for small office environments with up to 30 end users. It can optimize and monitor up to 8,000 concurrent network traffic flows at either 2Mbps or 10Mbps. An Ethernet bypass feature ensures that if the 1710 appliance were to fail, network traffic would not be blocked but would continue to pass through the appliance.

For reporting purposes, the 1710 stores up to two weeks of network monitoring data, which companies can use to fine-tune their network policies. Longer term reports are available through Exinda’s central management platform, called Service Delivery Point. 

“Organizations with small branches can get the same functionality as they would if they were larger organizations with bigger branches,” Nikolouzakis says of the 1710 device.

Like all of the appliances in Exinda’s x700 family of products, the 7800 and 1710 devices run Exinda’s v5.0 firmware, which was introduced earlier this year. The products can classify and prioritize Web-based applications and include tools for controlling recreational traffic such as encrypted BitTorrent.

“We’re finding that organizations, especially those in the middle tier where we’re operating, want to be able to get more out of their systems,” Nikolouzakis says. “With our appliances, they can do the acceleration and do the server consolidation. In addition, they can derive a whole lot more value by using the visibility component, and the monitoring tools, as well as being able to control recreational and Internet applications.”

Ann Bednarz is associate news editor at Network World.