* Expand Networks adds speedy compression algorithm to Accelerator products
Expand Networks last week announced an algorithm that promises to help the company’s Accelerator products further speed application traffic. The company also released the results of a benchmark test that shows how the algorithm stood up against competition from Packeteer and Peribit.
In a benchmark test sponsored by Expand, The Tolly Group tested the Expand Accelerator 4800 Series against Packeteer PacketShaper 2500 and Peribit Sequence Reducer-20. The study found that the Expand Accelerator performed better than its competition under certain conditions.
For example, The Tolly Group test found that the Expand Accelerator provided nearly eight times more effective WAN link capacity than the Packeteer and Peribit products tested and transferred repeated data five times faster to remote locations. The Tolly Group determined Expand might work well for companies with many remote branches where “employees use networked applications repeatedly to access applications hosted in the data center,” the report states.
Customers buy Expand devices in pairs and place one at each end of a WAN link, between LANs and the WAN routers. The Accelerators compress traffic bound for the second location, Expand says.
“Basically the new algorithm learns data patterns faster and enables us to produce higher compression rates faster,” says Ariel Shulman, vice president of business development at Expand. According to Expand, the test focused on proving that while compression is important in addressing bandwidth efficiency, data acceleration technology is critical to address latency and packet loss, which directly compromise application transfers to remote branch offices.
The new data transfer acceleration algorithm will be included in all Expand software starting with Version 5.0, which runs on Expand Accelerator appliances.
