Riverbed Research Report Sample

Background
Delivering applications to remote and branch offices over a wide area network has historically been slow, expensive and complex. The problems associated with delivering IT services over a wide area network include:

• Poor performance for employees accessing applications over the WAN
• The recurring costs associated with congested WAN bandwidth
• The inability to consolidate and protect remote information assets
• The length of time needed to perform backups and replication over the WAN

A number of technologies have become available in recent years to address the challenges listed above. These technologies are generally known by a variety of names including Wide Area File System (WAFS), Wide-area Data Services (WDS) and WAN Optimization. Regardless of the name of the technology, ESG has spoken with a number of customers who are thrilled with the results. A recent ESG Research survey confirms the benefits reported by early adopters as shown in Figure One.