Seven Criteria for a Sound Investment in WAN Optimization

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1 Seven Criteria for a Sound Investment in WAN Optimization Introduction WAN optimization technology brings three important business benefits to IT organizations: Reduces branch office infrastructure costs by facilitating server, backup, application, and storage centralization in the data center Minimizes WAN bandwidth expenses and the need for upgrades Improves employee productivity and business agility by accelerating applications and improving data protection and compliance across the WAN Choosing the best WAN optimization solution can be a daunting challenge, given the fact that vendors use different architectures and implementations. How do you make a well-informed decision, maximize the benefits of WAN optimization, and minimize total cost of ownership (TCO)? Fortunately, WAN optimization is not as hard as it may seem. To help you, Cisco has outlined the seven primary criteria you should consider before investing in a WAN optimization solution and why these criteria can be important to your business. This document also provides a handy tool to assist you in the search for the right solution for your business. Advanced Optimization Technology IT organizations can fully experience the three main benefits of WAN optimization through the most advanced optimization technology: Advanced compression Minimizes bidirectional bandwidth consumption Data suppression Minimizes bidirectional bandwidth consumption and accelerates applications by suppressing transmission of data that has previously been seen Caching Minimizes bandwidth consumption and accelerates applications by storing copies of any application data, not just HTTP objects that may be requested by other users in the future, so that the same data does not have to be sent again Flow optimization Overcomes the performance and efficiency limitations of commonly used transport protocols such as TCP Application-specific acceleration Reduces application latency so that application transactions can be streamlined and accelerated. Dynamic Autodiscovery and Optimization Autodiscovery allows WAN optimization devices in the branch and data center to automatically discover each other and start optimizing applications. This feature is important because it allows IT organizations to deploy WAN optimization without making any changes to user PCs, network infrastructure, or applications. This process is dynamic, so WAN optimization devices do not need to be specified or configured manually to allow autodiscovery. Most solutions do not support dynamic autodiscovery to the fullest extent; however, a fully dynamic solution such as that offered by Cisco offers a number of advantages: All contents are Copyright Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 1 of 5

2 In-path or off-path flexibility Most vendors autodiscovery processes support only in-path, not off-path, deployment. Invest in a solution that gives you the best integration flexibility: dynamic autodiscovery for either in-path or off-path deployment. Ease of scalability Autodiscovery is not as easy to scale in an in-path deployment. Shop for a solution that offers the best of both worlds: dynamic autodiscovery and ease of scalability. Automated intersite routing When off-path deployment is required to eliminate single points of failure, a truly dynamic autodiscovery technique uses your existing network to automatically make intersite IP routing decisions for you, rather than requiring administrators to manually specify and maintain IP routing decisions among WAN optimization devices that are deployed across multiple branches and data centers. Automated optimization without single points of failure Most solutions support automated optimization only through in-path deployment, not through off-path deployment. When off-path deployment is required to eliminate single points of failure, these solutions require manual and static configurations of target TCP ports for optimization. This approach raises two operating problems: manually entering and maintaining static rules is time consuming, and many applications, such as those from Oracle and SAP, use dynamically generated TCP ports, rendering static port mapping useless. Shop for a solution that allows you to automate optimization without introducing single points of failure into the data path. True Network Transparency Network transparency protects your existing investments and best practices in network and security policies. Most solutions support only partial transparency. A fully transparent solution not only integrates easily with your existing services, it also saves you ongoing management overhead over the long run. A true transparent solution should offer all of the following capabilities: Application transparency This capability makes deployment fast and easy because no initial and ongoing changes are needed for end-user PCs and applications. Most vendors support application transparency. Interception transparency This capability allows fast and easy deployment because neither the client nor the server is aware of the existence of the WAN optimization devices in the path. The client sends the traffic to the original server s IP address, and the server returns the traffic to the original client s IP address; LAN traffic is transparently redirected to the proper optimization devices. Some vendors support interception transparency. Preservation of industry-standard NetFlow policy WAN optimization that does not support IP header transparency does not show the user PCs and applications that are communicating or the TCP port that is being used. Instead, the collector receives information about flows between accelerators. Administrators examining NetFlow data from the edge routers see only flows between accelerators and cannot see which users are working with which servers on which application ports. Preservation of router access control lists (ACLs) Without IP header transparency, ACLs deployed on intermediary network devices may not function correctly because the accelerator may overwrite IP and TCP header information. The router where the ACL is configured then cannot see the actual flows between the users and servers. All contents are Copyright Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 2 of 5

3 Preservation of firewall policies Without IP header transparency, firewall policies built using IP and TCP header information may not function correctly because the firewall cannot see the end nodes that are communicating or the TCP ports that are being used. Instead of the actual flows between users and servers, the firewall sees the tunnels between accelerators. Preservation of quality of service (QoS) Without IP header transparency, QoS and associated features may need to be reconfigured if the packet header information is overwritten. QoS functions that are easily affected by accelerators include traffic shaping, policing, rate limiting, and queuing. Preservation of Network Based Application Recognition (NBAR) NBAR is a protocol discovery and classification technique that relies on visibility to application data. Any accelerator that overwrites the packet header and payload information prevents functions such as NBAR from correctly identifying and classifying data. Enterprise-Ready Performance Although WAN optimization benefits may be easy to obtain in small-scale deployments, a more mature and stable architecture is required for large-scale enterprisewide deployments. Invest in a long-term solution that offers the following enterprise-class features and benefits: Performance consistency and fairness Avoid a solution that runs the risk of optimizing one user s session while sacrificing other users experience and productivity. Invest in a solution that maximizes throughput performance evenly across large numbers of users in many branch offices. High performance without application errors Some popular applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, can respond with many errors caused by WAN optimization technology that adversely affects the Microsoft Exchange Message API (MAPI) protocol. The result can be highly destructive: Not only does optimization loses its benefit, but the application itself becomes useless. Look for a solution that offers superior acceleration performance and also takes extra precautions to help ensure application correctness. Robust high-availability and load-balancing capabilities Shop for a solution that offers mature implementation of these capabilities: automatic load-balancing of traffic among all devices, failover; fail-through, warm insertion and removal, and high scalability. Router Integration Router integration allows IT organizations to install and manage single devices at each branch office embedded with voice, data, security, and WAN optimization. Investing in a WAN optimization technology integrated with your routers gives you the following benefits: Integrated WAN optimization module Single devices embedded with data (routing and switching), voice, security, and WAN optimization can be preconfigured and shipped to each branch office, reducing shipping, IT staff travel, and installation costs. Consistent management interface An integrated WAN optimization and routing solution reduces the need to train staff, who are already familiar with the router management interface. It also simplifies IT management by using the same support contract and providing transparency of services. Dedicated hardware and software Invest in a solution that uses dedicated hardware and software to perform WAN optimization without affecting voice, data, and security tasks. All contents are Copyright Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 3 of 5

4 Data Center Integration Although WAN optimization is crucial for delivering applications to the branch office, it should be an integral part of the overall application delivery infrastructure. To meet this requirement, a good WAN optimization should offer the following: Integration with data center load balancing A WAN optimization solution that requires two sets of load balancing, one for itself and another for the server farm, increases design, installation, and management costs. Look for a solution that works with commercially proven load balancers that are already deployed in front of the server farm. Integration with data center acceleration Many users who are not in the branch office may not benefit from WAN optimization unless they can be optimized without requiring any branch office device. Invest in a solution that can be integrated with an application acceleration system that requires data center deployment only: so-called asymmetric acceleration. Integration with data center consolidation initiatives Branch infrastructure cost reductions and user productivity improvement cannot be maximized unless application delivery is handled in a systematic approach that addresses server and storage consolidation in both the data center and branch office. Invest in a long-term solution that supports data center consolidation initiatives including server and firewall consolidation, virtualization, security, and application performance optimization. End-to-End Services Increasingly, business application delivery requires not only the best features and performance but also a strategic partner that can advise about, install, and support its solution throughout the entire product lifecycle. Invest in a vendor that not only delivers global support 24 hours a day, every day, but also offers award-winning solution lifecycle services, including plan, design, implement, operate, and optimize services. Use Table 1 to compare the exceptional quality and value of Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) Software to solutions from other vendors. Table 1. Comparison of WAN Optimization Vendor Offerings Cisco WAAS Vendor Vendor Yes Yes No Yes No Advanced Optimization Technology Advanced compression Data suppression and caching Flow optimization Application-specific acceleration Dynamic Autodiscovery and Optimization In-path and off-path flexibility Easy scalability Automated intersite routing Automated off-path optimization True Network Transparency Application transparency Interception transparency Preservation of industry-standard NetFlow All contents are Copyright Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 4 of 5

5 Cisco WAAS Vendor Vendor Yes Yes No Yes No Preservation of router ACLs Preservation of firewall policies Preservation of QoS Preservation of NBAR Enterprise-Ready Performance Performance consistency and fairness High performance without application error Robust high availability and load balancing Router Integration Integrated WAN optimization module Consistent management interface Dedicated hardware and software Data Center Integration Integration with data center load balancing Integration with data center acceleration Integration with data center consolidation Initiatives End-to-End Services 24-hours-a-day global support Award-winning professional services Printed in USA C /07 All contents are Copyright Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 5 of 5