* OrbitalEdge delivers WAN optimization through a software client
The benefits of WAN optimization products are clear. Using compression and latency-reduction algorithms, they essentially increase the amount of traffic that can travel across a WAN link. The benefits: organizations don’t have to upgrade their bandwidth, and typically, they get additional monitoring data about application utilization of bandwidth.
But for all their strengths, the tools have a primary weakness. They’re typically a hardware device that must be installed on each end of a circuit, decreasing their adoption at small branch offices and their effectiveness overall on the WAN.
WAN optimization vendor Orbital Data came out with a product last week that immediately caught my attention because it addresses this weakness. The product, called OrbitalEdge, delivers WAN optimization through a software client, rather than a box. Further, the price point is lower than the hardware solutions, which organizations have been using primary between data centers and larger branch offices or international sites.
A typical OrbitalEdge solution with 500 licenses, a data center appliance, and management system costs $50,000. The price is significantly less than most hardware solutions. I expect the distribution model to increase the adoption at small and home offices, but the price isn’t quite low enough yet to make WAN optimization a given at every location on the network.
But where this product may be very appealing is for mobile workers, who can install it on their laptops to optimize their WAN link regardless of where they’re traveling. Anyone who is on the road even once in a while knows how unreliable and inconsistent connections can be in hotels, airports, or public hot spots.
OrbitalEdge claims an improved response time of up to 400%, and a 200-times improvement in throughput. Although those numbers may seem unbelievable, I’ve validated similar and even better figures with organizations who are using network-optimization tools from a variety of vendors, including Juniper (through its Peribit acquisition), Packeteer and Expand. Of course, run a trial first to assess the performance claims, as well as ease of installation and use.
As organizations forge ahead with their convergence projects – and more than 80% of companies have some plans in this area, however large or small, according to our latest research – network optimization will rise in importance. The IP infrastructure must be as efficient and well-managed as possible, and these types of products help in that goal.
Considering 91% of employees work remotely, on average, it makes sense to affordably extend the technology to those individuals to improve network performance – and ultimately productivity.
