Summary
This chapter examined two of the key technologies that are provided in WAN optimization solutions: transport protocol optimization and compression. These techniques are commonly implemented in a cohesive accelerator architecture with other application-specific components and provide the foundation for overcoming WAN performance obstacles. By employing transport protocol optimization, available WAN capacity can be better leveraged and higher levels of performance can be sustained in lossy environments. Through advanced compression techniques, performance constraints related to capacity can be overcome to improve application performance while also minimizing the amount of bandwidth consumption.
WAN optimization, when combined with other acceleration techniques described in previous chapters and network control capabilities, helps to enable a globally distributed workforce with centralized I/T infrastructure, all while minimizing the impact to the existing network and mitigating costly capacity upgrades in many cases.