, By , , 09/12/06
I’m starting a series of columns this week that highlight some of the more interesting, useful products available for branch offices.
Cisco’s branch office strategy has been a mixed bag. Its innovation often has lagged behind more nimble start-ups. But the most recent product launch caught my eye as one that addresses some growing needs in the branch office.
basically help improve application performance from the data center to the branch office. This addresses one of the big pain points that IT staffs are feeling: Now that they have consolidated and centralized applications and data, they must ensure quick, predictable performance to the growing number of employees residing in branch offices.
The products, which fall into one of a few emerging categories of all-in-one boxes for the branch, include WAN optimization, application acceleration, and wide-area file services (WAFS) . They compete with gear from vendors such as Expand Networks and Packeteer, which both recently acquired WAFS providers.
The gear addresses some key challenges:
- It improves performance over the WAN. Cisco claims a 4x to 100x improvement in application performance, and up to 99% reduction in redundant data transfers. (At first glance, these figures may appear unrealistic. But I’ve talked to numerous IT executives who have confirmed, generally speaking, that this type of technology does, in fact, result in such impressive performance improvements.)
- It addresses storage and file-sharing at the branch. Rather than store and back up files at the branch, the WAN behaves more like a LAN, enabling employees to access the files they need and store them off-site.
- It helps to address compliance issues by enabling remote storage and logging of appropriate data files and correspondence.
Overall, the product suite should provide a compelling ROI by reducing WAN bandwidth, print servers, file servers, and storage devices in and to the branch. Further, by improving application performance, employees working on various CRM, ERP, and financial applications become more productive because they’re not experiencing delays as they do queries or enter transactional data.
Cisco’s WAAS suite is essentially software delivered on various data center and branch office appliances. The NM-WAE, starting at $4,000, is geared toward most branch offices. It fits into Cisco’s 2800 and 3800 Integrated Services Routers. The WAE-512 is a dedicated appliance, starting at $8,500. Two other appliances, the WAE-7326 and the WAE-612, are for the data center and cost $53,000 and $15,800, respectively.
