Forrester

Why Read This Report

As businesses look to IT for the efficiencies, savings, and streamlining that will improve the bottom line, consolidation of branch office infrastructure represents a distributed but easy-to-optimize area of IT infrastructure. All the technologies included in this TechRadar are ripe for consolidation into the core of the organization in a central data center or to be virtualized and run on existing infrastructure that will persist in the branch, such as the WAN optimization or application delivery appliances. Branch-office-in-a-box, also included in this analysis, is often highlighted as the likely replacement for multiple pieces of branch office infrastructure. However, it exists as one of two paths for the evolution of infrastructure in the branch, with the other being cloud-based branch office services. Regardless of the path toward consolidation, the technologies highlighted in this TechRadar should be built into a consolidation plan aimed at driving down capital expense, reducing management complexity in the branch, and lowering associated operational expenses as well.