What customers say about WAN optimization

Network optimization means different things to different people. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy keeping tabs on the field, since the technologies, customer settings and implementation tactics seem endlessly varied.

This week I’m going to kick off a series of customer stories that reflect that variability. Over the last several weeks I’ve had the chance to talk to a handful of enterprise IT executives about their recent and ongoing WAN optimization projects. Beginning with the next newsletter, I’m going to share those stories.

For instance, there’s Merial, the animal healthcare giant behind consumer pet supply brands such as Heartgard and Frontline. Based in Atlanta, Merial operates in more than 150 countries. When the company decided to centralize its key business applications, it chose WAN optimization gear from Silver Peak Systems to boost application delivery worldwide and to speed data replication between data centers for business continuity and disaster recovery purposes.

Another company that shared its story is CGGVeritas, a geophysical company that works with major petroleum companies to help them find oil and gas reserves. CGGVeritas collects, crunches and distributes massive quantities of data, and it’s using Aspera’s file transport software to enable fast, predictable and reliable transfers of seismic data over the WAN.

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Network optimization means different things to different people. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy keeping tabs on the field, since the technologies, customer settings and implementation tactics seem endlessly varied.

This week I’m going to kick off a series of customer stories that reflect that variability. Over the last several weeks I’ve had the chance to talk to a handful of enterprise IT executives about their recent and ongoing WAN optimization projects. Beginning with the next newsletter, I’m going to share those stories.

For instance, there’s Merial, the animal healthcare giant behind consumer pet supply brands such as Heartgard and Frontline. Based in Atlanta, Merial operates in more than 150 countries. When the company decided to centralize its key business applications, it chose WAN optimization gear from Silver Peak Systems to boost application delivery worldwide and to speed data replication between data centers for business continuity and disaster recovery purposes.

Another company that shared its story is CGGVeritas, a geophysical company that works with major petroleum companies to help them find oil and gas reserves. CGGVeritas collects, crunches and distributes massive quantities of data, and it’s using Aspera’s file transport software to enable fast, predictable and reliable transfers of seismic data over the WAN.

Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group shared details about how it prepped for the peak summer car rental season, in part by load testing its two redesigned Web sites. Dollar Thrifty used technology services from Gomez to pinpoint performance bottlenecks that the car rental company fixed before heading into its busiest season.

Stay tuned for more on these projects, including details about what worked and what didn’t; unexpected savings; and deployment tips.

Also, please check out a survey that NetForecast analysts (and Network World bloggers) Rebecca Wetzel and Peter Sevcik are conducting on WAN optimization users’ needs, plans and preferences. The survey offers a chance for participants to potentially influence the direction of future products and services -- plus the chance to win Amazon.com gift certificates.

Read more about infrastructure management in Network World's Infrastructure Management section.