Loading ...WAN acceleration is one of those curious technologies that blows hot and cold. On one side is the cost (and availablility) of bandwidth. On the other is the cost of WAN acceleration equipment. The ability to just plug in a box at each end of a link, and produce virtual bandwidth or spoof applications into running faster, isn’t just a budget saver, it can be a network saver.
Ipanema have just unveiled a new range of products (”Ipanema Unveils a New Generation of Integrated WAN Optimization Devices With Breakthrough Performance, Expansion Capabilities” - PDF?!? - get a blog guys!) and Juniper seem to be on the move too (a little while ago from Network World).
In many places, the level of bandwidth required simply isn’t available, or it is on such a long lead time that an alternative solution has to be found. Or as USA Today would have it, “traffic surge creates network nightmare“. They are talking about the Internet, and are a little confused about the difference between bandwidth (ie bits per second) and traffic (the outrageous amount of traffic a single user seems to consume these days).Â
GIGAOM - “Why We Need Fat Pipes: The Top 5 Bandwidth-Hungry Apps” - cites these five bandwidth-hungry beasts:
- High-Definition Telepresence
- Telemedicine and Remote Surgery
- Video Instant Messaging and Video Presence
- High-Definition Television
- Real-Time Data Backup
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