MPLS

From the WAN Mailbag: Encryption, MPLS, optimization and more

One of the benefits of online publishing, as opposed to traditional paper and ink methods, is the Internet provides a more capable (and sometimes culpable) two-way street in terms of getting readers involved in the information purveyance process.

Social computing networks like Twitter, LinkedIn and Plaxo add to the interaction by channeling bits of information to specific user communities, or providing a faster and more effective route to important and useful articles. Over the past few weeks, we have received a number of comments from readers on various topics related to WANs and networking. The following is a quick taste and excerpts of what some of our readers are saying.

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On the subject of WAN-based encryption technologies:

Wouldn’t it be more prudent to encrypt data when it is written, so no data integrity is compromised? This way data can traverse the WAN, public or private, without compromise.

It is about centralized control and management. WAN throughput might be impacted, since most WAN optimizers need to cache or manipulate data for some type of acceleration. If the data has already been compressed or encrypted or de-duped, how do you optimize it? Continued »

Reading the writing on the WAN wall

One of the more vexing issues facing network managers today is how to cost effectively tweak a WAN to keep up with the rising number of remote workers and increasing reliance on branch office activities and technology capabilities.

On the one hand, companies are trying to centralize IT and network operations to maintain costs and simplify operations. On the other, there is an effort to provide more operational autonomy to branch offices, as they become the ‘frontline’ conduits for mission critical information and access to customers and suppliers.

This is an issue we continue to cover in the digital pages of SearchEnterpriseWAN.com, most recently in an article that looks at the trend to avoid costly WAN appliances in favor of WAN virtualization and software, and in profiles of major global companies like Carhartt, Inc., which is taking an “old school” but nonetheless successful approach, and deploying optimization appliances at critical branch offices.
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Email’s Sting: Moving beyond the buzz of ‘killer apps’

Of all the overused and inane buzzwords in the IT industry, the phrase “killer application” has to be right up there in the top five. Vendors peddling superfluous technology and latest add-on add-in kudzu always seem to truck out this term when they talk about future strategies and market share, as in, “Our new whiz-bang gizmo will surely take off when that ‘killer app’ surfaces to drive the demand for our product!”

Analysts and market researchers, like weather forecasters, don’t often take the time to look out the window to see what is happening in the real world. As a result, they too throw around buzzwords and generic terms like beaded necklaces at a Mardi Gras parade. Among the terms now being tossed in the air to giddy end users are cloud computing, telepresence and social computing -– the last one of my favorites since the antithesis would, of course, be anti-social computing. I also like it when vendors marry buzzwords and come up with terms like “unified communications in the cloud,” which suggest that clouds are getting in the way of clear market thinking.

WAN-dow dressing

Killer app is particularly annoying, though, since there is really no such thing because the applications in use are obviously more important to me than the applicants used on your systems. It’s just that simple and personal. If there is one application that might be awarded “killer” status, however, it is email, since everyone knows it, loves it (most times) and uses it. You can drape it in all sorts of buzzword dressing and fold it into such terms as collaborative computing, unified communications or instant messaging, but, at the end of the day, it works, it’s effective and it is the mainstay of most any enterprise computing network.

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Time is now to put more WOW into your WAN

It is a bit ironic that as attendees at the FutureNet conference in Boston this week dined on Mexican fare as part of Cinco de Mayo festivities, just outside and within reach were gallons of hand sanitizer liquid. 

There were even small bottles of the stuff positioned at the registration desk, as people lined up to pick up their badges and dive into sessions that explored everything from building cost effective WANs to MPLS backhaul networks.  

The H1N1 swine flu was not officially on the agenda here as network engineers and technical specialists gathered to discuss the latest trends and developments in SIP trunking, telecom convergence and 4G mobile.  Nothing to sneeze at when it comes to keeping the corporate network up to snuff and preparing for such things as convergence, increasing numbers of teleworkers  and even the spread of green IT across distributed networks.

A lot of the first-day discussions focused on the evolution of WAN architectures, especially as companies explore emerging next generation Ethernet technologies, MPLS and VPLS alternatives.  Most enterprise architectures have extended way beyond the typical LAN, said Nemertes Research analyst Irwin Lazar in his presentation.  Companies do it because they have to, he noted, because if they do not the result can be a loss of customers, potential business and eventually market share. 

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