Optimizing Multiple Enterprise Applications

October 20, 2009 by ADMIN

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Enterprise applications choke the corporate IT networks, and the blame invariably falls on bandwidth scarcity.

Is it really a bandwidth issue or are there other pressing issues? An application delivery network is the answer to many of the CIO’S worries?

Jeff Barker, VP solutions and Technical Marketing at Blue Coat Systems, talks exclusively to Rahul Neel Mani about application optimization and secured delivery.

Q:After acquiring Packeteer, how is the Application Delivery Network (ADN) shaping up as a technology?

A:The present focus of Blue Coat is on ADN, which is about optimizing and securing delivery of information and applications to any location from anywhere.

We believe there’s a way CIOs can enhance the packet delivery network.

The reason behind acquiring Packeteer was to develop a comprehensive layer of infrastructure that facilitates application delivery and that’s our focus.

For our understanding, we break down ADN into three key areas:

One of them is ‘Visibility’, largely what PacketShaper (a product from Packeteer) does for the enterprises. For a company to make the right decisions on optimization and deploy right security practices, you have to see what’s going on. Too many companies take a guess on what’s going on. So, ‘visibility’ is important.
The next element of the ADN is ‘optimization and acceleration’. There are certain things that can be done to improve the performance of applications delivered to users and to reduce the load on the infrastructure by caching and compressing the content.
The last element is ‘security’. Security is the highest priority because applications are being moved to the Web,like Web2.0. We are seeing that in SAP, Oracle and Salesforce.

All these applications are now deployed on Web-based infrastructure. About 80 percent of network applications available are Web-based.

Web-enabled technology is all about enabling businesses to transform the way they conduct their business; it enables them to choose how they deliver the applications.

This is a challenge where we recommend a powerful, innovative approach for a community based cloud-defense.

Since the average time on the network for a flame injection or malware exploit is just four - seven hours, you have to be quick in your responsiveness to these attacks. ProxySG does it for you.

So you may not have terminated the malware in time for yourself, but you stop it for everybody else that is part of this community.

Nearly 62 million users run ProxySG - that’s a community where if one person finds something, everybody else will be quickly protected.

Q:Will you elaborate on the visibility and acceleration part?

A:Blue Coat solutions are built around these two functionalities to deliver on our vision.

PacketShaper 8.5, which came to us through the acquisition of Packeteer, helps the CIOs achieve visibility and acceleration.

We intend to enhance the technology so that it fits well in other parts of our product portfolio.

We continue to invest in standalone PacketShaper products, as there will always be a need for such funds.

Q:Are customers looking for options beyond caching and protection? Where does the frustration come from? Are they really bothered about the threats or are they also concerned about visibility and optimisation?

A:Customers are equally concerned for all aspects. But specifically on the visibility and acceleration side, getting more out of the current infrastructure is a big concern.

One of our customers wanted to deploy video conferencing to save travel costs. The roll out was a challenge because it required 384 Kbps at 30 frames per second.

Where exactly does that capability come from was a big question? Either you can add bandwidth to the network, which is an additional cost or bring capability by using optimization technologies.

Blue coat’s first step was to look at how the network was being used. We found that the traffic was recreational and non-business.

Deploying optimization products with caching and compression, the client reduced the amount of non-business traffic, freeing the bandwidth needed for video-conferencing without adding additional bandwidth cost.

Users can ensure that business comes first on their network, and that is how they can get more out of it. It’s a big return and that, in today’s economic scenario, is where people spend the most.

Q:How do you offer these to a user organisation?

A:We really recommend a broad-based assessment of different situations and goals as a starting point.

We have System Integrators and Value Added Resellers for the assessment. Customers may be looking at video-conferencing,System acceleration, or consolidation.

Based on examining the situation, understanding the network being used, bandwidth constraints, we make a decision on how to move forward with the solutions. It’s great to start with assessment.

It is better to offer a solution to a problem, rather than a solution in search of a problem.

Q:How does the owner of the application network infrastructure see what the applications are doing?

A:PacketShaper has a very rich application identification technology.

It can passively analyze the traffic, identify the type, then start measuring the bandwidth response time in case of voice and video, database and measure the performance matrix.

These are common issue customers don’t have insight.

Once the user gets a usage pattern, there’s a classification technology called layer-7 classification technology with which users can differentiate between most of the applications running over the network.

Q:While offering these services to the enterprises - small,medium or large - what are the different ways that you are adopting to offer these services? Lot of talk around SaaS model, cloud model, or are just selling it to them and let them manage themselves?

A:So on the visibility and optimization side, the technology doesn’t lend itself to SaaS model.

There are a couple of ways that we offer the products and solutions in the market through our system integrators and resellers to the end-customers.

The other way that is growing for us is via service providers. Service providers sell it to their customers as an additional service.

There’s an option to give the customer an OPEX option for acquiring a technology.

The CTO Forum is India’s leading fortnightly magazine for technology decision makers. It promotes the exchange of informed perspectives and insights on trends, management techniques and new IT business strategies, between CIOs and other stakeholders. The CTO Forum is acknowledged as a ‘trusted source’ of knowledge for top management responsible for balancing the demands on technology for ‘growth and governance’.

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