Stories by: Keith Schultz

Speeding up the delivery of applications and data to remote users is the No. 1 goal of WAN acceleration and optimization. Not only does it help get more done over the same amount of bandwidth -- or less -- but WAN optimization appliances reduce response times and overcome latency inherent to long-distance WAN links. Using a combination of file- and byte-segment caching, TCP optimizations, and application-specific acceleration, WAN acceleration appliances help move the data that drives business.

With the economy slowing down and IT budgets getting tighter, trying to sell your boss on some new network equipment might defy conventional wisdom. But if the equipment helps reduce time wasted when working over a WAN, or better yet, improves overall WAN usage and user productivity, it might not be as difficult a sale as you thought.

Network admins have spent many a late night trying to figure out how to improve application response or file replication across the WAN. Faster performance is all about bigger pipes, right?

Optimizing and accelerating traffic across the WAN no longer requires searching for exotic solutions -- there are a variety of appliances available from which admins may choose. Simply install an appliance on both ends of the WAN circuit and let them reduce network chatter, help mitigate the effects of latency, and make better overall use of the link.

I sometimes wonder why there aren't any movies made about IT superheroes. Sure, there's always Superman (able to leap tall buildings in a single bound) and Batman (the caped crusader), but what about WANman -- the IT superhero that accelerates high-latency traffic and saves the company from additional Internet bandwidth costs? Well, the tights and cape might not go over well (except on casual Fridays), but any IT staffer that can give enterprise users more performance is well on their way to superhero stardom.

Poorly performing WAN links continue to be the bane of many network administrators. Wherever there is a WAN link, there will be performance degradation caused by latency and chatty protocols. Simply adding bandwidth is not the answer. Using appliance-based solutions on each end of the WAN circuit, however, can improve overall response time and throughput.

Effectively overseeing data storage across the network is a problem that all network managers face. Some estimates peg annual storage growth at 60 percent to 100 percent; with growth numbers like this, even small and branch offices can quickly find themselves in a real storage crunch.

IWSA appliance guards your systems from viruses and malware.

There's more to WAN performance than the size of the pipe between offices. By Keith Schultz

You can always tell when a particular technology begins to gain momentum by the availability of lower-cost alternatives to the bleeding-edge, high-end devices.

In days past, help desks trotted out their anti-virus kits when asked to minister to sickly PCs. But today they must also bring to bear an array of anti-spyware tools. Spyware -- with its adjunct, adware -- is fast becoming the No. 1 problem among Internet-connected computers, more so than viruses or hack attempts.