When discussing topics associated with WAN Virtualization and WAN optimization, the conversation can quickly begin to focus on the details of the technology and the “hows” (as in “how does the load-balancing work” or “how can I prioritize this traffic” or “how quickly does the failover occur”).
These sorts of specifics are of course important when evaluating WAN solutions. But in many businesses, it’s not just the technical personnel who have a stake in the decision making process. It’s important for decision makers at all levels to understand the benefits of new WAN technologies and what they can mean for their business. Today we’re going to cover some of the high level benefits of WAN Virtualization and WAN Optimization in a way that is hopefully accessible for interested but non-technical parties.
For each business, the most important factor is to understand how critical WAN connectivity has become to everyday productivity. The specific applications vary from business to business, but it’s important to be aware of how many services utilize WAN technology to function.
This might be as simple as email or general web access, but as more companies continue to move services to the cloud it’s typical that other functions that may have been hosted on internal servers in the past are now utilizing the WAN connectivity as well. Simple examples of this might be hosted CRM solutions, transaction processing, or document sharing within the organization. Losing access to those resources can bring productivity (and/or revenue) to a screeching halt.
Conversely, companies that host some or all of their own servers have different but equally important concerns. As employees become more and more mobile, access to company resources via remote desktop or VPNs is considered vital. Access from external users such as vendors or customers becomes essential as well – the uptime and visibility of any public-facing services (email, web servers, ecommerce) reflects on your organization significantly in the eyes of partners and customers. In organizations where there are multiple locations, maintaining effective connectivity between the sites can be equally critical, especially if resources are concentrated at data center locations.
It’s not just about failover, either. In subsequent posts we’ll cover additional aspects of virtualization and optimization in more detail, as failover is only one piece of the larger puzzle. As mentioned above, it’s about effective connectivity, not just connectivity. Until next time!
For more information about WAN Virtualization and WAN Optimization or to schedule a demonstration of Ecessa’s WAN technology, visit www.ecessa.com/products call Ecessa at 800.669.6242 or fill out the form below to schedule a consultation.
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