WAN Optimization debunked

http://www.4bridgeworks.com/wan-optimization/
WAN Optimization debunked
The one thing about WAN optimization to keep in the rear of your minds is that it can't replicate the speed of light - it is what it is - wide area network optimization can easily make a 2mb connection seem like a 10mb connection.

If you're transferring data in between short ranges, WAN optimization isn’t going to help. You need latency between the two locations. Once you plug in the technology, everyone is going to notice you did something positive if they experience latency problems.

Any wide area network can be optimized. Furthermore, the further away or the worse the performance is at that isolated site, the greater effect WAN optimization can have on its performance.

Fundamentally WAN optimization delivers local area network like performance over a WAN. So if you have remote individuals at another site or on-the-move, WAN optimization will help deliver the same speed as users in your data centre would experience.

In a WAN there is a limit to bandwidth, dialogue between sites and latency. So what many WAN optimisation systems do is break down and label documents and data and deliver them up to users.

After the user has used the documents and information - and created any changes, the optimization software and hardware will only take notice of the changes to the data and transfer them back to the data centre...not the information the branch office or remote location already knows the data centre has!

Possibly the biggest advantage of WAN optimization is the advantage of less “round trips” in data transfers via satellite. A WAN optimized network can cut data transfer by over 90% - meaning much less dependence on narrow bandwidth and a lot quicker access to remote data.