Is this really new or just CDN recast?
During the last six months we have been briefed by four companies, each claiming to be first out the chute with WAN optimization in the cloud. We detect a trend! Although we tip our hats to the moxie of all four–we believe none of these companies can rightfully claim the mantel of being first to market with cloud-based WAN optimization. That mantel was claimed before the term cloud computing drifted into our vocabularies.
The prize for first to market goes to Netli, which launched its cloud-before-it-was-called-cloud-based service back in 2003. In that year, Netli announced it was “the first company to offer a complete Application Delivery Network (ADN) service”. Netli’s service, acquired by Akamai in 2007 and now called Akamai IP Application Accelerator, sits somewhat obscurely within Akamai’s bulging service portfolio, with no one apparently devoted to bragging about it.
We have no idea who was actually second to market, but we’ll present the recent arrivals in the order they briefed us. The ball started to roll when Internap briefed us at Interop in May about their “first-of-its-kind” XIP Web Acceleration Service. Next in line was Cloud Leverage, who briefed us later in May about their Cloud Acceleration Service. Then in June, along came Virtela telling us about the “world’s first cloud-based application acceleration service” which they call–you got it–Cloud-based Application Acceleration. And finally, two weeks ago Aryaka Networks told us confidently that they now offer “the world’s first cloud-based application acceleration and WAN optimization solution”, called the Aryaka Platform.
Regardless of the order of appearance, we think it’s safe to say that cloud-based WAN optimization is now an in service. If we were Akamai we would remind people that this is not a new concept, and in fact they’ve been at it a long time. Akamai could also claim that a CDN is, and has been for more than a decade, a cloud-based application performance optimization service.
Be that as it may, the takeaway is that the number of options for cloud-based WAN optimization services is growing. Next we would like to see test data to show what all that cloud-based horsepower can actually deliver for customers.
If you agree with us that one can make the case that Netli offered a cloud-based WAN Optimization service starting in 2003, and Akamai has been offering a cloud-based service for more than a decade, let us ask an obvious question. What is really novel about this “new” cloud service phenomenon–or is just a new name for an old idea?
