Simplify your distributed network

Optimization products improve worker productivity for companies with multiple networks.

IT managers in distributed organizations are facing two seemingly irreconcilable challenges. First, they must achieve cost savings, increase control over existing data and resources, and enhance network security–all by consolidating network resources. Second, they must ensure that remote users enjoy high-quality user experiences in order to maintain productivity.

As large organizations have set up remote branch offices (RBOs) to take advantage of global and national markets, islands of IT infrastructure and data developed and grew with the proliferation of these RBOs. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, each RBO commonly would have a completely unique infrastructure, with no standardization of servers, storage, security or backup. Managing these distributed environments began to cost organizations large sums.

Today, IT managers have chosen to consolidate servers and storage, returning servers to corporate data centers. Consolidating resources should introduce efficiencies and control for IT management, but the practice has been neither as rewarding nor as simple as anticipated. There are a number of reasons for this, but they all are the result of two overarching challenges.

First, consolidation has not resulted in the savings that were expected. Consolidating servers was little more than moving them from the branch to the data center. They were neither phased out nor eliminated. In fact, typical solutions often required increasing the number of servers in the organization, as these solutions required that applications, as well as data, be served from the central location.

As a result, bandwidth consumption and its costs increased. Moreover, existing desktop resource investment was wasted when such applications as word processing or spreadsheets, which existed on client computers, needed to be pushed over the WAN.

The second challenge is a decrease in user satisfaction for RBO workers. Even though organizations added bandwidth to accommodate the requirements of pushing applications and data over wide areas, they could do little about latency. Subsequently, users often had to contend with downtime and degraded service, which inconvenienced them and negatively impacted their productivity.

As a result, users often disregard the standard operating procedures that dictate working with centralized data, preferring instead to create and save documents locally. This defeats attempts to control critical data. As a result, distributed organizations are seeking yet another alternative.

The solution consists of identifying and deploying best-of-breed optimization products, achieving consolidation (including cost savings, enhanced control over data and increased data integrity) and enhancing the user experience.

The first challenge overcome by these optimization products is that of consolidation, along with a reduction in resources. Not only are file, print servers, DNS and DHCP servers (and others) removed from the branch office, they are eliminated from the organization altogether. Any critical data that had been previously located on these servers is relocated to the data center, and all other functionality (DNS, print, DHCP) is then performed by the RBO optimizer.

Once critical data is removed from the branch, other resources (such as storage and backup devices) can also be removed from the RBO. All maintenance (patches, shipment of tapes and updating) is then eliminated, as well.

Optimizers also reduce latency by optimizing traffic at three layers–the network, application and file system layers. By intelligently optimizing network traffic, lowering file system overhead and adapting to application usage patterns, RBO optimizers deliver LAN-like performance to users accessing files over the WAN. The best RBO optimizers become part of the IT infrastructure, operating in real time, maximizing data integrity and enhancing the user experience.

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Doron Abrahami is director of communications and channel development at DiskSites, Tenafly, N.J.