Numerous vendors are addressing branch-office needs but affordable, yet functional, products for small branch sites still are in short supply.

Packeteer this week is introducing new PacketShapers, the 1400 Lite and 1400, that are designed for small branches, or those that don't have a large number of applications to manage and optimize.

There are three key features I like about the new line: First, it includes compression, application acceleration, and visibility into application usage. Second, the product starts at $1,500 for visibility; adding controlled compression and acceleration increases costs to $3,500 - both decent prices for the capabilities provided. Third, it comes with a software key upgrade feature that lets customers increase features without having to buy and install a new device.

The 1400 Lite handles up to 64 application classes and track various metrics that indicate performance problems - basically, a good product for retail sites or perhaps small satellite corporate offices. The 1400 handles up to 256 app classes, and provides more reporting features, so it's more applicable for a bank branch, for example. WAN bandwidth rates for either are up to 2Mbps.

With a software key, customers can upgrade the 1400 Lite to the 1400. With its previous products, customers had to replace the Packeteer 1200 with the 1550 device. Naturally, the problem with a hard upgrade is the operational costs that go along with the installation and setup.

Packeteer is challenged these days in a market it effectively established and owned for a few years. Now, numerous vendors are making products in the WAN optimization and application acceleration space, including Juniper (which has re-tooled the former Peribit and Redline products), Expand Networks, Cisco, and Citrix (which now owns Orbital Data), among many others.

As is the case with many vendors that started very early in a now-emerging market, Packeteer needs to keep its products from becoming stale in an increasingly crowded field of branch-office players.

We definitely will see continued consolidation in the branch-office product market, particularly as vendors combine optimization with other gear. Cisco and Nortel, for example, are adding a growing list of features, including optimization and wide-area file sharing, into their all-in-one products for the branch.

For organizations that simply want optimization at small branch offices, Packeteer's latest product provides decent capabilities at an affordable price. But those who want optimization wrapped into other capabilities will need to look at other vendors, such as Cisco or NetDevices.