Many IT managers struggle to provide adequate performance over the enterprise WAN. Applications require more bandwidth and less latency, file and e-mail attachment sizes are growing, and user expectations are increasing. At the same time, the business is demanding cost containment and avoidance, and server and IT resource consolidation. This research note addresses the costs and benefits of WAN optimization, particularly with respect to:
- WAN bandwidth cost containment and avoidance.
- Improved performance over the WAN infrastructure.
- Server and IT resource consolidation and cost reduction.
WAN optimization appliances can dramatically improve inter-site WAN performance, reduce bandwidth requirements, and allow for server centralization. For many enterprises a positive ROI can be achieved in less than a year.