Network optimization is becoming increasingly multifaceted and granular. Not only has the market activity heated up - with numerous acquisitions and undoubtedly more to come - the technology is becoming more and more innovative.

As an IT or network manager, you know the drill. It’s up to you to understand how it all works, who offers what, and how to craft a business case for the products.

So far, network optimization has been a pretty easy sell: Install some relatively affordable appliances, watch performance improve and delay or eliminate the need for bandwidth upgrades and additional management tools. But data center consolidation - and the ensuing centralization of applications and data - has resulted in a broader focus on the performance of the network, applications, and access to centrally stored files and data.

Optimization is now more about controlling and predicting network and application performance in a granular way!

One of the best examples of this comes from Blue Coat Systems' Mach 5 product line. The Mach 5 product takes a policy-based approach toward optimization. So for example, a salesperson trying to remotely access salesforce.com to close a deal will get higher priority and more of the available bandwidth than a manager pulling up quarterly sales projections.

The product performs other functions, too, including compression, latency reduction, and byte caching (which I’ll be writing about next week), but its ability to prioritize traffic by high-level metrics, such as user type, user name, or application being accessed is a driving feature. Mach 5 also integrates with corporate directories, so it can dictate bandwidth allocation based on a user’s title. Wouldn’t it be nice to give the CEO or other executives a top-quality experience whenever they’re trying to access an application remotely? That’s some job security!

IT executives have expressed a desire for this type of business process oriented QoS for the past two years, according to Nemertes’ research benchmarks. The optimization vendors have been extremely innovative at meeting these and other demands, so don’t overlook them as you’re looking for such management features.

Robin Gareiss is executive vice president and senior founding partner of Nemertes Research. Click  here for the newsletter archive.