* Vendor experts debate where acceleration technologies should reside in enterprise networks
Recently Network World invited two vendor experts to debate on where exactly acceleration technologies should reside in enterprise networks.
The premise of the discussion is that network equipment makers such as Cisco could argue that technologies to speed application packets should be embedded into the network infrastructure, optimizing traffic delivery without disrupting network services. On the flip side, it can be argued that other vendors such as Blue Coat Systems that deliver appliances to accelerate traffic, but work on top of the existing network infrastructure have the right idea.
In fact, George Kurian, vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Application Delivery Business Unit, debated the reasons why acceleration technology should be integrated into the network infrastructure in Network World’s Face-off a couple weeks ago. Opposing that view was Alagu Periyannan, CTO of Blue Coat Systems, who argued that acceleration does belong in the network rack, just not embedded in the routers and other packet-delivery devices.
Kurian argued that implementing acceleration in server and desktop environments is “suboptimal” at best and “by deploying acceleration at the network level, organizations can optimize performance equitably by distributing intelligence across the entire infrastructure.” He says bolting application acceleration products onto the existing network infrastructure “could undermine the network’s health and efficiency and the business processes that run on it. When looking to enhance performance, always heed the old adage: First, do no harm. Acceleration.”
Alternatively, Periyannan argued that while network vendors obviously have a critical role in terms of IP address and TCP ports, their strengths do not lie at the application layer. He says, “to ensure application-level performance and security, application delivery needs to focus on a different set of key elements – the users (who they are and their role), the application and the nature of their interaction (the session).”
What do you think? Read the debate for network-based acceleration here and for acceleration at the application layer here. E-mail your thoughts at ddubie@nww.com or for more instant gratification and heated debate, post comments in our Face-off: Application Acceleration forum.
