Head Up In The Clouds
Envision a realm in which the corporate WAN is totally customer friendly and you purchase WAN connectivity like you do your cable service. That’s right you purchase it right from the Web, and there is no configuration of branch-office routers and additional mechanical supervision needed. Technology is heading in this direction, as a new crop of startup and compulsory network merchants center their attention on bringing WAN services via the cloud network.
The problem is that this service is a big threat to some of the bigger router vendors, like Cisco and Juniper, as they move a great deal of office networking gadgets for the current WAN setup. It also poses a threat to service providers. They have long been selling the old and expensive T-1 and MPLS lines. When you add a sophisticated new technology that has the ability to give a company broadband internet, the cloud, have high performance and a secure connection, companies will flock to this in droves.
Let’s talk cost. The typical MPLS is about one hundred times more expensive per MBPS than internet bandwidth usage. This is according to a study that was done by Craig Weinhold for the benefits of using the cloud. So who’s behind this movement to go up to the cloud? Well, big name players are Viptela, Aryaka, Pertino and Silver Peak to name a few. Those adamantly opposed to this are Cisco and Riverbed, for obvious reasons. However, they also are monitoring trends and are also moving toward connectivity through software and virtualized services, as opposed to using hardware.
So what is the future of the Cloud WAN? Well, according to a research report that was released from Rayno Report, they estimate that the Cloud WAN will be worth about $7.5 billion dollars in the next 5 years. After conducting over three months of interviews with venture capitalists, enterprise users, and product design companies they found that the market is shifting and WAN optimization in the clouds is the way most are heading. Demand makes the market more profitable, and this one is about to explode.
One of the reasons for this switch is that the world needs fewer boxes. However, the shift in technology is giving huge opportunities for businesses that are using old fashion WAN options to update and use cloud based optimization. Here are some interesting facts to further prove that this is the way to optimize:
- There has already been over $350 million dollars in venture capital invested to help with the facilitation of the cloud WAN startup procedures.
- It has been reported that there are nearly 20 incumbent technology business that are pursuing the Cloud WAN market. This clearly proves that they know it’s going to be a huge leap and they want in on it.
- This technology is expected to virtualize current enterprise WAN technology functions and advance them. This will include office routers, VPNs, ADC, and WAN optimization. Moving this functionality into the cloud is a huge step for the IT world.
- A Cloud WAN model showed that the return on investment for optimizing can save in many areas including:
- Management Costs
- Hardware
- Maintenance
- Productivity and Labor
- Energy
It’s kind of hard not to get excited about a method that can simplify and enhance the business’ bottom life and overall way of functioning. Though there are initial costs involved in the transfer, the savings outweigh the costs by a long shot. Who wouldn’t want to enhance their company and simplify their WAN?