Data center needs push WAN optimization demand

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The increasing popularity of cloud computing and other data center consolidation initiatives, according to a report from TechTarget, has pushed WAN optimization services to the fore.

"You know the phrase, 'You can never be too rich or too thin'? Well, you can never have too much bandwidth or too little latency, so it's an ever-escalating question of how we can get more through the same pipe and how we can compensate for [the limitations of] the speed of light," Gartner Research vice president Joe Skorupa told the news source.

At bigger companies, in particular, the need for upgraded WAN links is acute. TechTarget cited recent research as showing an average of just 18 months between such upgrades for nearly 70 percent of companies surveyed with a total worth of at least $1 billion.

Using such hardware to back up data or host apps in the cloud can introduce potential security complications, according to experts. The use of a VPN service to protect information on its way to or from a cloud service could be a good move.