Forrester

Why Read This Report

F5 jumped out to an early mindshare lead in WAN optimization with its acquisition of Swan Labs back in 2005. Since then, it has been busy working on integrating its WANJet technology into its TMOS architecture, which forms the basis of its flagship BIG-IP product. However, this leaves F5's current product in limbo. To achieve the full WAN optimization suite, both WebAccelerator and WANJet products are needed. Our evaluation predominantly focused on WANJet, which has an architecture that uses tunneling among devices and does not currently support disk for caching and compression. The upcoming TMOS-enabled version of WANJet will solve these integration woes as well as immediately provide higher throughput, session scalability, device clustering, central management, and more advanced monitoring and reporting. This sets up F5 for a strong product down the road and will allow you to deploy WAN optimization as part of a larger application delivery technology that bolsters application security, performance, and availability.