Rethinking the WAN

W H I T E P A P E R

© 2011 Aryaka Confidential and Proprietary. Do not reproduce or distribute without prior permission.

© 2011 Aryaka Confidential and Proprietary. Do not reproduce or distribute without prior permission.691 S. Milpitas Boulevard Milpitas CA 95035 1-877-7 ARYAKA www.aryaka.com

Rethinking the WANW H I T E P A P E R

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ........................................................................................................ 3

Current Solutions ............................................................................................................ 4

In-house Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization ........................................ 5

Managed Services .................................................................................................... 6

Rethinking the WAN

A New Approach to Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization ....................... 7

Aryaka’s Approach to Redefining the WAN .................................................................... 10

Rethinking the WANW H I T E P A P E R

Executive SummaryConventional wide area networks (WANs) began with the announcement of the first packet-switched WAN in 1968. Since then, WANs have evolved through multiple technologies, protocols and topologies, yet the fundamental functionality of the networks themselves has remained essentially the same – the transfer of data over wide areas between corporate headquarters and branch locations. However, there has been a radical change, particularly during the last decade, in the type, amount, and purpose of data that is being transferred.

Accommodating new business applications, SaaS and VoIP, teleconferencing, streaming media, and increasingly large file sizes presents an ever-increasing challenge to achieving adequate performance, productivity and efficiency on an organization’s WAN connections. In today’s economic downturn, all these new demands have to be managed quickly and with drastically reduced budgets to maintain competitiveness.

Companies with a global perspective and a distributed workforce need to find a new way to improve their WAN performance in a timely, low-cost, low-impact and seamless manner. At the same time, they need to ensure a sustainable strategy for future growth initiatives that allows for economical and non-disruptive growth. Aryaka’s revolutionary cloud-enabled Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization technology offers global enterprises LAN-like performance on their WAN, along with enhanced visibility and scalability across locations and across applications. And our subscription model ensures that enterprises pay as they go, lowering the total cost of ownership.

Aryaka is a revolutionary approach to cloud-enabled Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization, and a fundamental architectural shift in the delivery

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of these functionalities. Instead of a WAN Optimization Controller (WOC) or managed appliance model per customer, the Aryaka Network is designed for cloud-based WAN Optimization, offering customers cost effective, scalable and reliable connectivity between enterprise locations. The software and technology used in the Aryaka solution is proprietary, purpose-built from the ground up, and patent pending. Enterprise intelligence is moved from the box into the Aryaka Network.

Current SolutionsToday, users of wide area networks are facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions. Network traffic has increased by several orders of magnitude, while the composition of the traffic has become infinitely complex as shown in the market evolution image below.

Network Traffic Composition, 2000-Present

Both large and small enterprises today face challenges stemming from the global nature of business, the needs of distributed enterprises and rising workforces, as well as the costs of global branch offices. For example, enterprises now have a higher concentration of mobile workers, road warriors and sales teams which

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Rethinking the WAN

are constantly on the move. Enterprises also need to centralize data for economy, security and compliance. Both these requirements are at odds with each other. The two existing approaches to Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization are:

1. In-house hardware solutions

2. Managed Services solutions

Each of these approaches solves a part of the WAN Optimization dilemma, but neither delivers a comprehensive and complete solution.

In-houSE ApplICAtIon ACCElErAtIon And WAn optImIzAtIon

The compelling need for Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization has created a rapidly growing multibillion-dollar market for add-on WAN optimization devices. These devices, priced at tens of thousands of dollars each, require symmetrical installations and, with each new branch installation, result in multiplying head office costs.

Multiple vendors of widely varying sizes offer solutions for parts of the optimization problem, but no single vendor currently offers a complete solution. The resulting environment of complexity and multi-vendor uncertainty makes it impossible to develop a reliable and consistent strategy to address today’s needs as well as tomorrow’s growth in a cost effective way.

Appliance-based solutions deployed today require that hardware configurations either are oversized to account for growth tomorrow, or undersized for reasons of current economics. Additionally, such solutions require costly and disruptive upgrades in the future to accommodate growth. Moreover, none of these solutions provides quick and easy connectivity to new branches, 24/7 network-wide visibility, and the detailed management and constant monitoring that modern businesses need for their mission critical WAN applications.

The functionality and deployment methods of these appliances vary across vendors and have evolved over time to accommodate the requirements of new WAN applications. Initially providing basic acceleration with TCP optimization and object caching, they now perform application-specific acceleration for the most commonly used applications over the WAN – email, file transfers and web traffic. However, each new capability has also required either upgrades or new equipment, making the process of “keeping up with the WAN” both an implementation and an economic nightmare.

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Rethinking the WAN

Beyond the requirements of symmetry, these current approaches require an additional, separate appliance to provide visibility into the customer’s network, adding yet another CAPEX item to the cost of optimization. Support for mobile workers requires another special appliance/controller as well. Furthermore, larger headquarters with hundreds of users need further hardware to effectively load balance and share activity across their appliance farm.

The resulting need for more and more hardware creates a CAPEX crisis, as the requirements for expensive hardware multiply further. This critical issue has led WOC vendors to move beyond their current realm of compression, caching, and application-level acceleration, and address customer needs for management and accessibility as well.

mAnAgEd SErvICES

In an attempt to simplify the challenge of in-house Application Acceleration and WAN optimization, service providers like Verizon, BP, AT&T and Orange are offering Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization as a managed service.

This is in no way different from the traditional managed appliance strategy, in which providers acquire, manage, and maintain appliances for the customer. The enterprise in turn pays the service provider a monthly charge for the service, in addition to exorbitantly high management charges.

Managed service offerings transfer the burden of physically hosting and managing the extremely complex multi-appliance hardware configurations from the enterprise to the managed service provider. However, they do nothing to address the fundamental flaws of WAN Optimization in the appliance model.

WE hAvE SEEn thIS bEforE

Progression from appliance model to a cloud-based solution

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Rethinking the WAN

The progression of on-site hardware solutions to managed services and to purpose-built networks has already happened in the market for content delivery. As the need to deliver content over the Web has grown exponentially in the past decade, the solution to the problem has evolved from on-premise appliances to managed caching services, and finally to the purpose-built, optimized, and continuously evolving Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).

Vendors such as Akamai Technologies, CDNetworks, and Limelight Networks provide today’s most effective, cost-efficient, and continuously scalable content delivery services. This evolution was propelled by many of the same forces driving the Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization markets today. Just as each solution to the content delivery problem evolved from hardware to managed services to embedded solutions, the Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization solution of tomorrow will be well-served in following the same path.

rethinking the WAn – A new Approach to Application Acceleration and WAn optimizationCurrent “add-on” optimization approaches address individual technical and performance issues with current WANs. However, the WAN model is deficient in more ways than just performance. The add-on approach does nothing to solve economic, scale and simplicity issues that add dramatically to both cost and usability challenges. Rather than accruing more expenses and dealing with unnecessary complexity to augment an outmoded network design, it is time to rethink the WAN altogether.

The needs for bandwidth conservation, application acceleration, centralization, and cloud computing can all be dealt with most effectively within the network itself. Additionally, the needs for continuous scalability, pay-per-use economics, and a comprehensive, integrated view of performance across the network require both integration with the network structure and a single-vendor view of the entire network, including all of its components and functions. Finally, to provide a genuinely simple, easy to use and maintain, as well as cost-effective solution for both large and small businesses, the market calls for an entirely new business model.

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Rethinking the WAN

Network evolution, 2000-Present

When one considers the WAN Optimization solution in its next evolution, a few questions arise:

• Can the intelligence of a WOC, sitting at the network edge within the headquarters or the branch office, be pulled into the network to further optimize branch office infrastructure?

• Can the solution include the network which connects the headquarters to the branches?

• Can all this be done with the focus on high performance, availability, redundancy and security?

• Can the CIO and the IT department get the required depth of visibility into their network and the applications on their WAN?

• Most importantly, can all of the above be achieved for both large and small businesses in a manner that is more cost effective as well as easy to implement, use, scale and maintain?

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Rethinking the WAN

In short, can this….

…..simply become this?

Aryaka’s patent-pending, revolutionary technology answers all the key questions for the next generation of Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization with a resounding YES!

All the intelligence and the resulting benefits of WAN Optimization are built into the network infrastructure itself, including acceleration, bandwidth conservation, consolidation and cloud-computing support, together with enhanced file transport and management for both backup and recovery needs. The Aryaka Network is globally deployed, in multiple points of presence (POPs), with dedicated capacity between strategically selected locations in high-end datacenters.

Enterprises can connect to this network from any of their headquarters or branch office locations using their local access loop. Enterprise WAN traffic and applications can then ride across this overlay network, built on dedicated connectivity, and reach the desired destination in the most efficient way possible – without dealing with the inherent latency and loss issues of the underlying Internet.

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Rethinking the WAN

The Aryaka Network is purpose-built to provide the highest possible performance, with more applications reaping more benefits, as compared to any other existing network solution.

Beyond improving the basics of Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization, Aryaka also addresses key business, economic and simplicity needs of large and small businesses:

• Aryaka’s pay-as-you-go and scalable model eliminates CAPEX in favor of OPEX and allows the customer to pay only for the capacity used, while providing the ability to scale up and down as needed.

• Aryaka’s architecture and unique model allows customers to provision easily and quickly for new locations. The process is as simple as signing up for a SaaS on the web.

• Aryaka’s single-vendor solution for the network, optimization, maintenance, support and SLAs allows customers to have a complete network view, delivered via a browser-based monitor, and a single point of contact for all their needs.

• Aryaka’s cloud-based application acceleration approach delivers continuous updates and future-proofing for Aryaka customers, thereby simplifying the entire process by cutting out the associated downtime required by existing solutions.

• Aryaka, purpose-built for WAN performance regardless of the geographical spread, makes it possible for both large and small enterprises to have a similar user experience on their WAN as on their LAN.

Aryaka’s Approach to redefining the WAnAryaka has rethought the traditional WAN and created an entirely new application delivery network that provides:

• Simple, powerful cloud-based overlay architecture

• Superior network and application delivery performance:

o Dramatically lowering the cost and complexity threshold for the market to use Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization

o Application Acceleration, WAN Optimization and the network in a single solution

o The entire solution as SaaS

o WAN Optimization technology is built in-house and the intelligence moves beyond appliances into the network.

Rethinking the WAN

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KEY AdvAntAgES of ArYAKA:

• Simple, powerful cloud-based overlay architecture

• Superior network and application delivery performance

• Simplicity in purchase, installation, scalability and maintenance

• Pay-per-use, continuously scalable OPEX economics

• Single vendor solution, end to end visibility and unified network monitoring and management

o Mid-mile optimization increases link utilization and allows the network to peak well beyond the provisioned bandwidth

o Branch-to-cloud traffic acceleration

• Simplicity in purchase, installation, scalability and maintenance

• Pay-per-use, continuously scalable OPEX economics

• Single vendor solution, end to end visibility and unified network monitoring

and management

Aryaka is the perfect solution for enterprises with a globally distributed presence, especially in a difficult economy. It enables these enterprises to get seamlessly connected across the world, on a reliable network with cutting-edge optimization technology and without any upfront investment.

Aryaka’s end-users can achieve dramatic gains in productivity, enabling them to work in ways never before possible. Also, CIOs and their IT departments now have unprecedented visibility into their WAN applications and flow. All questions and issues regarding around-the-clock management and monitoring can be directed to the world-class Aryaka Support Center.

Aryaka – Cloud-enabled Application Acceleration and WAn optimizationWith the Aryaka Network, you can start with a network of any size and configuration and grow economically, into as complete an Aryaka solution as you require. With Aryaka’s service model, you only pay for what you use and our self-service provisioning is as easy as signing up for any SaaS application. With your first Aryaka interaction, you will experience the true performance, convenience, and visibility of an optimized network service for business.

Contact Aryaka today to provide the connection to your next branch office, to provide redundancy for a mission critical Headquarters-Branch connection, or to increase capacity as you use our network for any current connection. There’s no need to replace your current infrastructure or optimization solution; Aryaka can coexist with your current topology!

Once you experience the Aryaka difference, you will wonder why you have been settling for less!

Reach us at 1-877-7 ARYAKA or email us at sales@aryaka.com today.

Rethinking the WAN

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Rethinking the WAN

About ArYAKA, InC:Aryaka is the world’s first cloud-based WAN optimization company solving application and network performance issues faced by the distributed enterprise. Aryaka has been named “Cool Vendor” by a leading analyst firm and to the GigaOm Structure 50 list for companies that will shape the future of cloud computing. Aryaka eliminates the need for expensive and complex appliances as well as long-haul connectivity, and enhances collaboration across locations. It offers significant cost, ease-of-use and performance advantages, helping global companies achieve dramatic productivity gains and increased visibility into their WAN applications, locations and performance, while providing 24/7 world-class support. To learn more, visit www.aryaka.com. Follow us at twitter.com/aryakanetworks, facebook.com/aryakanetworks, and on linkedin.com/company/aryaka-networks.

Aryaka Networks, Inc. 691 S. Milpitas Blvd. Milpitas, CA 95035Tel: 1-877-7 ARYAKAwww.aryaka.com

© 2011 Aryaka Confidential and Proprietary. Do not reproduce or distribute without prior permission.