* Vendor partnerships can mean less risk and streamlined deployments for enterprise customers
Some partnerships you can see coming — a WAN optimization vendor teaming with a network storage vendor, for instance. Others come as more of a surprise, like when a content delivery network provider partners with a coffee chain.
Lately a handful of network optimization players have struck partnerships with other companies. For customers, the deals can mean vendors with different technologies are going to do the upfront work to make sure their products work well together, which can save enterprises some deployment and integration headaches.
In a deal between Expand Networks and BlueArc, for example, the companies are working to pair application acceleration technology with file server consolidation capabilities. The combination is designed to help avoid the performance hits that can accompany a typical storage consolidation project. Clearly, moving file servers from remote offices and putting them in a central location can introduce latency and congestion issues for employees trying to access files over the WAN. Jointly deploying BlueArc’s Titan network storage systems and Expand’s WAN optimization technologies can mitigate consolidation pitfalls and make it easier for remote employees to be productive, the companies say.
Similarly, F5 Networks and EMC are working together to ensure interoperability between F5’s WANJet 500 appliance and EMC’s Symmetrix networked storage system. EMC will resell F5’s WANJet 500 appliance to provide acceleration and traffic shaping between data centers using EMC’s Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) software for data replication and disaster recovery.
In the case of Stampede Technologies working with Motorola, enterprise customers can benefit from joint testing the two companies did to make sure Stampede’s client acceleration software works on Windows Mobile devices from Motorola. Stampede last month achieved validation that its client software works on Motorola handsets, including the MC35, MC7094 and MC9094. Stampede’s client acceleration software works in conjunction with its acceleration appliances and is geared for users of smart phones and PDAs who need to download large e-mail attachments, access Web applications and do other enterprise tasks on the road.
In another recent partnership, Akamai Technologies teamed with Starbucks in a deal that calls for Akamai-enabled content delivery servers to be deployed within thousands of the coffee chain’s stores to speed wireless delivery of digital music. The deal builds off an agreement between Apple and Starbucks whereby customers in a Starbucks location who have an iPod, iPhone, or device running iTunes can get free Wi-Fi access to Apple’s iTunes Store to buy and download music. Adding Akamai to the mix speeds the delivery of content from the iTunes Store to Starbucks locations — and means Starbucks can take advantage of Akamai’s network capabilities rather than increase connectivity in each store location.
Editor’s note: Starting Monday, Nov, 19, this newsletter will be renamed “Network Optimization Alert.” Subscribers to the HTML version of this newsletter will notice some enhancements that will provide you with access to more resources relevant to network optimization. You will still receive Ann Bednarz’s analysis of this market, which you will be able to read in its entirety online at NetworkWorld.com, along with links to relevant news headlines of the day. We hope you enjoy the enhancements and we thank you for reading Network World newsletters.
