A recent survey IDG Research Services survey found that although cloud users are enthusiastic about the technology, there is still a main barrier to them reaping the full advantages of IP-based systems: their enterprise WAN networks. These findings show just how critical WAN optimization is to ensure constant, reliable access to the all-important cloud resources businesses are leveraging today.
The survey, which was carried out with support from XO Communications, CIO and Network World, looked to gauge how well the cloud was matching up with users’ expectations of it. The findings illustrate the crossroads at which cloud technology currently resides, and demonstrates the critical need for WAN optimization. Although 70 percent of respondents noted that their expectations were met or exceeded by their cloud deployments, 52 percent said their current network infrastructure is preventing them from seeing the full benefits of their systems.
“Survey respondents report that in addition to how well the cloud service itself meets their functional and budgetary needs, another critical factor to successful cloud deployments is the uptime and performance of the WAN access link,” IDG Research stated in the report.
The Storage Networking Industry Association is of a similar viewpoint, noting that while WAN is a “core component of the cloud,” the network architecture alone is prone to bandwidth bottlenecks and latency. This causes issues when users attempt to connect with cloud resources, resulting in slow access and poor application performance.
These issues are enough to shift the way users view cloud deployments, as dealing with less-than-responsive applications can lower their acceptance of the technology. After all, the cloud, which promises to boost productivity and efficiently, is actually doing the opposite when the network is not managed properly and flooded with excessive traffic.
The solution: WAN optimization
The survey found that a network performance, or bandwidth management solution was a top priority for more than 60 percent of respondents.
“These tools can take many forms, but most provide visibility into the WAN connection and analyze what is happening on it,” the report stated. “From there, how well the tools help you quickly identify, troubleshoot and fix issues is paramount to cloud success.”
When seeking a WAN optimization system of this kind, there are none that match the capabilities offered by Ecessa solutions. Ecessa enables network administrators to have an intuitive overall view of the activity on their network while also providing the ability to prioritize specific traffic to ensure cloud performance.
“One of our primary goals is to really give the network engineers and users full visibility of the network so as they’re trouble shooting problems or trying to get applications to run more robustly, they’re able to see where the problem is,” noted Ecessa CEO Ron Thomas.
In this way, administrators have full control over the performance of their WAN, especially as it relates to their cloud service. With Ecessa’s WAN optimization in place, network bandwidth bottlenecks can be quickly pinpointed and resolved, instead of simply avoided.