Is WAN Acceleration Just a Band-Aid?

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2 Is WAN Acceleration Just a Band-Aid? Well It Depends On The Problem You Are Trying To Solve Manickam Sridhar CTO Converged Access Inc. msridhar@convergedaccess.com

3 What is driving WAN Acceleration: The Enterprise IT Agenda Today Compliance Data Center/Server consolidation Convergence Business-critical Application performance: existing, new Network Security (UTM) Distributed Enterprise Access Consolidation (centralized management & scalability) Mobility and Virtual Organizations VPN Convergence Business-critical Application performance: existing, new Network Security (UTM) Changing business needs forcing changes in WAN architecture

4 Why Change the WAN Architecture? Delivering On The Promise of Business IT Convergence Enable enterprises to exploit true converged IP networks, and: Improve business productivity 5-20% Contain cost as Business IT needs grow and become more complex Reduce corporate networking costs by up to 2/3 Extend visibility for risk management and corporate compliance Control who/how the network is being used Need to think holistically Datacenter, Hubs, Branches

5 Organizations with branch offices have between six and seven devices at each branch office - the average is 6.1. This creates management complexities, multiple points of failure and a high operational cost. - Nemertes Research. ** The New Branch Model: A Market View "Enterprise branch networks are changing at a rapid pace, and the equipment market is changing quickly with it, as evidenced by the formal arrival of the 'services gateway' product sector." - Zeus Kerravala, Yankee Group vice president In-Stat/MDR: Business Gateway devices Burton Group: Branch in a Box devices IDC: Branch Office Intelligent access to central services, triple play V/D/V Gartner Group: The WAN Optimization Controller (WOC) market will undergo a major shift during the next 12 months as vendors respond to customer plans to eliminate branch-office servers. The services required at branch level continue to expand rapidly to include streaming content, XML/Web services processing, WAFS, DHCP/DNS, advanced compression/caching ECDN and secure tunneling. Microsoft: "With better throughput between TCP peers, the utilization of network bandwidth increases during data transfer. If all the applications are optimized to receive TCP data, then the overall utilization of the network can increase substantially, making the use of Quality of Service (QoS) more important on networks that are operating at or near capacity." *Source: 09 Mar 2006 SearchNetworking.com

6 The Problem

7 Application/Network Convergence: Need to close the Performance Gap Business Objectives/Process Design Bulk Data Business Applications Interacti ve Real Time Align the Demands of Each Business Application with Available Network Resources THE BUSINESS Results Compliance End-user QoE THE SOLUTION Consistent, predictable end user performance Network productivity, application visibility, and cost control Any IP transport Any access network THE NETWORK Connectivity Efficiency, Low TCO

8 Why Close the Gap Different Applications need different solutions FTP/Bulk Bulk Data Transfer Interactive Real time Web Web Sphere SAP Oracle People Soft JDE Citrix POS Web Services Converged Call center VoIP Video Stack View Applications at the top IP Services IP services to map application requirements to network resources required in the middle WAN ACCL TCP IP UDP End-end IP transport at the bottom Bulk Data : Long lived flows, a lot of data is sent Interactive: Request response, sensitive to latency Real time : Data is transmitted as is created, extremely sensitive to latency

9 Latency Sensitive Apps Require Intelligent Application Performance Control, NOT Just Acceleration HIGH Data Streaming Backup Video Video Conferencing Bandwidth Requirements LOW with Attachments Business Critical Applications Internet/ intranet NEED Intelligent Application E-commerce ERP Performance Control! Text Latency Sensitivity Gaming VoIP Citrix PoS HIGH

10 IP Services Technology Review

11 IP Services Application Performance Control: IP Services FTP/Bulk Bulk Data Transfer Interactive Real time WAN Accl Web Web Sphere SAP Oracle People Soft L7 Classification AON Security TCP IP JDE Citrix POS Web Services Converged Call center VoIP Video Flow Management, CAC, Proxy, Signaling Converged Traffic Manager Packet Compression UDP Bulk Data : Long lived flows, a lot of data is sent Lighter shading Interactive: Request response, sensitive to latency = More value Real time : Data is transmitted as is created, extremely sensitive to latency

12 Application Performance Control: Stack View State-based Layer 7 Classification What it does Bulk Data Transfer Interactive Real time Classify traffic using L7 application signatures Any flow can be discretely identified and monitored Any policy can be applied to any flow (security, QoS ) Policies can be dynamically integrated for each application State-based flows can be easily tracked Benefits FTP/Bulk WAN Accl Web Web Sphere SAP AON Oracle TCP People Soft Uses ALGs for voice and dynamic port based apps IP Services L7 Classification IP JDE Citrix POS Accurate identification of all applications Visibility with granular, detailed monitoring and reporting Simplification with intelligent application Security policy templates Web Services Converged Call center VoIP Video Flow Management, CAC, Proxy, Signaling Converged Traffic Manager Packet Compression UDP

13 Security What it does Benefits Application Performance Control: Stack View FTP/Bulk Bulk Data Transfer Interactive Real time Web Web Sphere SAP Authenticate and manage data on a flow by flow basis Provides Firewall, VPN and VoIP validation Opens firewall pinholes only for the duration of a VoIP call Key for protecting voice, other application at remote sites Oracle People Soft Security and QoS can be integrated and managed as a single application specific policy - performance and simplicity advantages IP Services WAN Accl L7 Classification AON Security TCP IP JDE Citrix POS Web Services Converged Call center VoIP Video Flow Management, CAC, Proxy, Signaling Converged Traffic Manager Packet Compression UDP

14 Application Performance Control: Stack View Flow management, CAC, October Proxy, 10-13, Signaling 2006 San Diego Convention Center, San Diego California What it does Bulk Data Transfer Interactive Real time Authenticate and manage data on a flow by flow basis Provides call control functions Provides signaling to other devices in the Eco-System Mandatory for managing real time traffic Benefits IP Services FTP/Bulk WAN Accl Web Web Sphere SAP Oracle TCP People Soft L7 Classification Security IP JDE Citrix POS Improves response time for interactive applications Guarantees voice quality Works for all applications Limitations Web Services Converged Call center VoIP Video None - Essential for applications performance management, especially real time traffic Flow Management, CAC, Proxy, Signaling AON Converged Traffic Manager Packet Compression UDP

15 Application Performance Control: Stack View FTP/Bulk AON What it does Application gateway to change message formats between web based and legacy back-ends Benefits Eliminates Intermediate (manual) steps in the order fulfillment process Preferential routing to preferred customers Limitations IP Services Bulk Data Transfer Interactive Real time Security Logging WAN Accl Web Web Sphere SAP AON Oracle TCP People Soft L7 Classification Security IP JDE Citrix POS Web Services Converged Call center Only affects a portion of the traffic Done deep in the network, has no concept of WAN conditions Needs Traffic Management at the LAN WAN boundary to protect the AON traffic VoIP Video Flow Management, CAC, Proxy, Signaling Converged Traffic Manager Packet Compression UDP

16 IP Services Application Performance Control: Stack View /packet October 10-13, Cache 2006 San Diego Convention Center, San Diego California Bulk What Data it does Transfer Interactive Real time Caches file fragments / Packets Sends only delta changes to the remotes FTP/Bulk WAN Accl Web Web Sphere SAP AON Oracle TCP People Soft Security IP JDE Citrix POS Web Services Converged Call center Benefits Saves bandwidth on large file transfers Improves file download times Limitations Helps only with data that changes infrequently Microsoft is actively L7 Classification solving office app caching issues Confusion about what to do forces tactical response VoIP Video Flow Management, CAC, Proxy, Signaling Converged Traffic Manager Packet Compression UDP

17 Application Performance Control: Stack View WAN acceleration What it does Bulk Data Transfer Interactive Real time Intercept TCP connections to speed up bulk data transfers May use a proprietary protocol between boxes to send data Can send data on the first packet Benefits Fills up long fat pipes With pre-fetching helps cut down turnaround times Improves file download times on LFP s Limitations L7 Classification Only effective on long delay or high bandwidth pipes Microsoft is actively solving the Security issue by using TCP window-scale option on the servers Flow Management, CAC, Proxy, Signaling IP Services FTP/Bulk WAN Accl Web Web Sphere SAP AON Oracle TCP People Soft IP JDE Citrix POS Web Services Converged Traffic Manager Packet Compression Converged Call center VoIP Video UDP

18 Application Performance Control: Stack View Converged Traffic Management (Lighter means more effective) Bulk Data Transfer Interactive Real time FTP/Bulk Web Web Sphere SAP What it does Accurately enforces policies for all traffic Proactively allocates resources on the WAN Controls both inbound and outbound flows Benefits IP Services WAN Accl Oracle TCP People Soft Intelligent defaults applied to specific apps Manages over-subscription at the data center L7 Classification IP JDE Citrix POS Web Services Converged Call center VoIP Video Assures that key business processes, applications perform Up to 95% WAN bandwidth utilization Security Selectively expands bandwidth with compression Flow Management, CAC, Proxy, Signaling AON Converged Traffic Manager Packet Compression UDP

19 Application Performance Control: Stack View Packet Compression (Lighter means more effective) What it does Bulk Data Transfer Interactive Real time Gather and compress one or multiple packets Reduces the number of bits put on the WAN Works well for most data centric applications Benefits Provides virtual expansion of the WAN pipe for non-critical apps Improves file down load time on thin pipes For the same download time uses less bits on WAN Increases availability of WAN L7 Classification bandwidth for critical applications Limitations Security Adds some latency for compression Will show improved download AONtimes only Flow if the Management, CR is high CAC, Proxy, Signaling enough to reduce the serialization delay IP Services FTP/Bulk WAN Accl Web Web Sphere SAP Oracle TCP People Soft IP JDE Citrix POS Web Services Converged Traffic Manager Packet Compression Converged Call center VoIP Video UDP

20 The Bottom Line... Bulk Applications Require Aggregate Bandwidth Management (Efficiency) FTP/bulk files benefit greatly from compression Web traffic is contained with HTTP caching Microsoft will address office application performance proprietary solutions will need to chase compatibility

21 Bottom Line (continued...) Real-time and Interactive Applications Require Accurate, Session-Aware, Per Flow Control Session Level Flow Level Packet level A session can have multiple flows VoIP, IP Video: Signaling, call data, call control Business applications: User ID, place order, check credit Web services: One application spans many data centers Converged applications: independent voice, data, video flows Each flow must be identified, secured and precisely enforced

22 An Architectural Solution

23 Architecture for Converging Enterprises Architectural Principles Management Convergence Simplicity, Scalability, Lowest OPEX Comprehensive policy management Reduced operations costs through zero touch provisioning Minimized provisioning complexity Applications Convergence End-to to-end Optimized WAN Application Performance for Business Voice, Video, Data Intelligent Application Performance Control Device Convergence Routing, Switching, Security Lowest OPEX & CAPEX across 1000s of devices Functional & Physical integration Reliability, Availability, Scalability Business Continuity

24 Management Layer Centralized Provisioning and Management Reduced configuration and change management cost Central network services configuration, upgrade control Simple, template-based configuration Zero touch device provisioning/deployment GUI-based application policy definition & change Single policy integration of multiple rules (security, QoS) Minimal retraining of existing personnel Scalable support for thousands of devices Secure, flexible distributed administrative access Simplified management mandatory for scalability

25 Application Layer Optimized WAN Application Performance Class Based Queuing Advanced RTP (VoIP) Support TCP Rate Shaping Policy Based Compression Real-time Monitoring Transparent Web Caching Unified Policy Management Advanced Network Diagnostics Wire-Speed-Classification VPN/Firewall Uncompressed Data KEY: High Priority Medium Priority Low Priority Application Control System Compressed Tunnel Real Time Traffic Management (RTTM) = accurate per user QoS Single wire-speed classification engine enforces multiple policies Deep packet inspection enables Layer 4-7 application granularity Services are selectively applied to each application Bandwidth utilization that can exceed 95% Technologies selectively applied by application type to yield the best possible performance from the network

26 Device Layer Branch in a Box Simplicity, Lowest CAPEX Single integrated platform to purchase, manage and maintain Combine switching, routing, security PLUS WAN optimization Branch Services Gateway Provisioning System Versus PSTN Multiple Management Systems Gateway Switch Traffic Manager IPS/IDS Firewall VPN Router IP/MPLS Network

27 Solutions for a Converging Enterprise

28 Applications and Best Suited Technologies by verticals Vertical Applications Best Suited Technologies Today Retail Healthcare Transactional processing, streaming, Point of sale, ATM, VoIP, Video, SAP, CRM Doc scan, medical records management, imaging Branch in a box with best in class Traffic management Branch in a box with best in class Traffic management + TCP Acceleration Insurance, Large financial branch (Records processing) Doc scan, imaging, Citrix, printing Branch in a box with best in class Traffic management + TCP Acceleration Future Manufacturing Information Industry /Knowledge-based Orgs (e.g. SW dev) Repeated files, MFG, , CAD, CAM Knowledge works, shared docs TCP acceleration + Compression + 2 nd pass + CIFS proxy + Branch in a box file caching + Branch office box Per-user application control ensures consistent performance for all applications on the network

29 Summary Is WAN Acceleration just a Band-Aid? Depends on the problem Bulk Data applications can benefit from WAN acceleration Real-Time and Interactive applications less so These need a deterministic solution The Architecture needs to scale Needs to be flexible enough to add other features such as traffic management, monitoring and reporting etc.. The solution needs to scale Ask about the largest deployment to date Needs to scale down to fit a small branch office with a few users Needs to scale up to a large data center with Hundreds of thousands of users It has to be easily deployable to hundreds of locations Needs to have a near zero touch provisioning system Test, Test, Test before you decide to deploy