Midsize companies are starting to show an
interest in WAN data compression.
The number of organizations with revenues between $300 million and $1.4
billion that have adopted or are considering adopting WAN data compression and
acceleration technologies continues to grow.
According to a report released April 21 by TheInfoPro, an IT research
company, more companies of this size are adopting these technologies because of
exponential data growth and cost efficiency.
The report noted that 13 percent of the companies surveyed in this range
currently were using these technologies, while an additional 16 percent planned
either a pilot or evaluation program or near-term or long-term implementations.
Those numbers are in contrast to larger enterprises. The study showed 32
percent of the Fortune 1000 are currently using WAN data compression and
acceleration technologies, while another 45 percent were considering it.
"Larger companies usually have greater network complexity and greater
data volumes, and the depth and breadth of applications used is usually
greater," said Bill Trussell, managing director of network research for
TheInfoPro.
"But the midmarket is growing. It's not unusual to have a new or
emerging technology be first adopted by the Fortune 1000, and as vendors start
to tailor their pricing plans and scale the solution down to what midsized
organizations can afford to buy, that's when the midmarket starts getting
interested," Trussell said.
Although the trend may have started in larger organizations with remote
offices or branch offices, it's definitely catching on in the midmarket, where
companies have similar issues, said Bob Laliberte, an analyst with Enterprise
Strategy Group.
"Just like larger companies, these technologies give midmarket
companies better connectivity and security, and they are much more
efficient," Laliberte said.
For both groups, however, the biggest driver by far is the constant growth
of data.
"As data grows, it forces additional bandwidth, so anything companies
can do to consolidate that bandwidth is a good thing," Laliberte said.
In general, there are two types of providers of WAFS (wide-area file
services), data compression and deduplication technologies—technologies that
largely make up WAN compression and acceleration technology, Laliberte said.
Popular stand-alone vendors include Riverbed Technology, Packeteer and Silver
Peak, while larger companies such
as Juniper Networks and Cisco Systems are beginning to incorporate this
functionality into their networking gear.
"So if you have an IP router on site, you can sometimes upgrade that
hardware and get some of these technologies built into it," Laliberte
said.
Other popular vendors in this area include F5 Networks, Expand Networks, IBM,
Hewlett-Packard, NetApp, Crescendo Networks, Aspera, Blue Coat Systems,
Stampede Technologies and Citrix Systems, according to TheInfoPro's report.
Networking 
