For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: WAN Optimization, Q4 2009

Blue Coat And Riverbed Lead, With Expand And Cisco Close Behind

by Chris Silva, November 10, 2009

In Forrester's 65-criteria evaluation of wide-area network (WAN) optimization vendors, we found that Blue Coat Systems and Riverbed Technology lead the pack, in part due to the changes these vendors made over the past year through acquisition of complementary . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The State Of WAN Services Adoption In North America 2009: CIOs Lead On Cost Reduction

by Phil Sayer, October 30, 2009

The need to cut costs dominates North American enterprises' 2009 plans for wide-area networks (WANs). This is the top priority for almost three-quarters of enterprises as part of IT budget cuts mandated at board level. At the same time, network traffic . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The State Of WAN Services Adoption In Europe 2009: Cost-Cutting Dominates Enterprise Plans

by Phil Sayer, September 3, 2009

Cost-cutting dominates European enterprise plans for wide area networks (WANs) for 2009. This is the top priority for almost three-quarters of enterprises as part of IT budget cuts mandated at board level. At the same time, network traffic is growing . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

TechRadar™ For IT Infrastructure And Operations Professionals: Branch Office Technologies, Q2 2009

Core Technologies Ripe For Consolidation And Centralization

by Chris Silva, May 26, 2009

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 . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Future View: Mobile Unified Communications Demand And Evolution, 2009 To 2014

Revenue Growth Will Follow As Vendors Facilitate Easier Integration

by Michele Pelino, March 19, 2009

Today, few enterprises integrate unified communications (UC) functions with mobile applications because most companies do not yet understand the value proposition of mobile UC integration. We believe that UC integration into mobile line-of-business (LOB) . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

RFP Template For Global Data Wide-Area Network (WAN) Infrastructure And Services  (215 KB XLS)

by Brownlee Thomas, Ph.D., March 16, 2009

An Excel template intended to give sourcing organizations a starting point for building an RFP for outsourcing global data wide-area network (WAN) infrastructure and services.

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: MPLS In The United States, Q1 2009

by Lisa Pierce, January 30, 2009

In the US, enterprises are steadily moving off legacy WAN services like frame relay (FR) and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and onto IP-based services like multiprotocol label switching (MPLS). This is reflected in the WAN-related inquiries Forrester . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Remote And Small Site Access In The US: A Look At Six Alternative Service Providers

AuBeta, Hughes Network Systems, IVANS, MegaPath, New Edge Networks, And PAETEC

by Lisa Pierce, January 15, 2009

Forrester clients whose network operations span a large number of small or remote locations often express interest in using providers other than AT&T, Qwest Communications, Sprint, or Verizon Business. They want to evaluate the capabilities of alternative . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The State Of WAN Services Adoption in Europe: 2008

Ethernet And Internet VPNs Outstrip MPLS In Popularity

by Phil Sayer, September 19, 2008

The migration from legacy data services to IP-based wide-area network (WAN) services in Europe is now largely complete, led by the largest multinational firms. Over the past year we have seen a 20% reduction in the number of enterprises that have no plans . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Ethernet Services Take Europe By Storm

VPLS Grabs The Attention Of Both Service Providers And Users

by Phil Sayer, September 3, 2008

Carrier Ethernet services have reached mass adoption in Europe and are challenging multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) virtual private networks (VPNs) as the first choice for enterprise WANs — 42% of European enterprises have fully deployed site-to-site . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Emerging WAN Services: Look Before You Leap

Recent Ethernet RFIs Show Chinks In Providers' Armor

by Robert Whiteley, August 15, 2008

As enterprises continue to migrate to emerging WAN services like Ethernet, it's easy to succumb to the path of least resistance by simply evaluating and migrating to the incumbent WAN provider's new offers. Think again. Forrester's evaluation of responses . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Q&A: Is Mobile WAN Optimization Right For You?

Enhancing Mobile Computing Inside And Outside The Organization

by Chris Silva, June 3, 2008

WAN optimization is no only longer only a point-to-point technology for accelerating traffic among branches and data centers. Instead, companies that have turned to the Internet as their corporate WAN are looking to apply WAN optimization to all of their . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Shorthand For Evaluating WAN Technologies: IP VPNs Versus MPLS Versus Ethernet

by Lisa Pierce, May 21, 2008

To support intersite connectivity, enterprises are in the midst of migrating from legacy services like private line, Frame Relay (FR), or asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) to IP (Internet protocol)-based services. Based on key requirements like performance, . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Today's WANs Don't Keep Pace With Applications

Growing Applications And Content Point To The Internet As The Future WAN

by Robert Whiteley, April 23, 2008

Your organization's demand for network capacity is growing at exponential rates. Why? Because new application trends like Social Computing and Web services, coupled with interactive content like video, drive massive bandwidth need. Your network operations . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

What Drives Enterprise Network Upgrades?

Security And Application Pressures Are Compressing Network Refresh Cycles

by Robert Whiteley, April 23, 2008

Today's networks are under siege. Infrastructure and operations teams worry about security upgrades, application rollouts, and new virtualization architectures that are stressing networks beyond their capacity. As the network manager, you once toiled . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Hot Companies To Watch In 2008

Profiles Of Emerging Companies And Technology Trends That Vendors Should Consider When Planning Their Strategy

by Chris Andrews, April 16, 2008

Technology vendors increasingly focus on using external sources to bolster their company's innovation. Driven by globalization trends — and a realization that they can't manage all of their innovation in-house — vendors are seeking to generate more innovation . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: European WAN Services, Q2 2008

COLT, Orange, And Verizon Lead In Services; BT Leads In Market Presence

by Phil Sayer, April 11, 2008

In Forrester's 62 criteria evaluation of 12 European MPLS-based WAN service providers, we found that COLT Telecom, Orange Business Services, and Verizon Business led the pack with the best overall combination of current offering and strategy. We ranked . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Recent Ethernet RFIs Show Chinks In Providers' Armor

by Lisa Pierce, Phil Sayer, March 27, 2008

Whenever making a major change to a critical network, it's important for enterprises to conduct both requests for information (RFIs) and requests for proposals (RFPs). Recent work Forrester undertook with some key clients who have very demanding performance . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Packeteer Provides The Deepest Application Visibility For WAN Optimization

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by Robert Whiteley, July 20, 2007

Packeteer is at an interesting juncture. It was the original WAN optimization vendor, but its original product — PacketShaper — predominantly focused on traffic management and quality of service (QoS). It has since acquired Tacit Networks, which provides . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Blue Coat Systems Adds Security And Control To WAN Optimization Appliances

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by Robert Whiteley, July 20, 2007

Blue Coat Systems surprised us with its very strong offering and came in fourth in our evaluation, almost tied for third. In addition to one of the best optimization architectures, Blue Coat also provides a strong road map for broader application delivery . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Citrix Systems Automates WAN Optimization Deployments

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by Robert Whiteley, July 20, 2007

Citrix Systems currently offers one of the best WAN optimization strategies and positions WAN optimization as part of the larger application delivery infrastructure. Its WANScaler product offers very strong optimization architecture that deploys at Layer . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Juniper Networks Has The Best WAN Optimization Strategy

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by Robert Whiteley, July 20, 2007

Juniper came in as the second strongest vendor all around. Its WX and WXC WAN optimization appliances are some of the most sophisticated, with particularly high scores for deployment capabilities, compression, and its comprehensive management system. . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

F5 Networks Is Busy Integrating WAN Optimization With Application Accelerators

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by Robert Whiteley, July 20, 2007

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 . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Silver Peak Systems Provides The Most Scalable WAN Optimization Appliance

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by Robert Whiteley, July 20, 2007

Silver Peak Systems provided the most technologically superior solution. It scored the highest on current offering, and its solution provides a full suite of optimization techniques as well as a performance-oriented solution. Silver Peak specializes in . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Riverbed Technology Leads The WAN Optimization Appliance Market

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2007

by Robert Whiteley, July 20, 2007

Riverbed and its Steelhead appliance is the clear Leader of the WAN optimization market. It has a top-notch product, and it will continue to expand on its strategy as the best standalone optimization vendor. In particular, Riverbed has innovatively combined . . .