New WAN Optimization Economics

The new Mobile Accelerator Client (MACC) with unique HIVE technology transforms the economics of WAN Optimization for smaller branch offices and mobile workers within medium to large sized businesses. It slashes overall TCO and removes the requirement for a whole class of conventional accelerator hardware for small branch offices while delivering appliance like performance. The MACC addresses today's conflicting challenges of increasing application demands and tighter budgets through a number of technology and economic firsts:-

• Up to 66% savings on multiple small office deployments
• Sub $100 concurrent user licensing
• Free WAN optimization for small branch offices with appliance like performance using unique HIVE Technology
• No appliance required for small site, which eliminates additional power, space, maintenance costs and datacenter hardware

Sample Savings From Expand: 84 Site Global Enterprise Network 69 small sites. Average of 10 concurrent TCP sessions per user. A mix of 4M, 2M, 1M, 512K and 256knps WAN links. Total costs (list) : Other Vendor = $1,053,209

DISTRIBUTED ENTERPRISE CHALLENGES

The need for increased efficiency is driving organizations everywhere to implement consolidation strategies using server based computing, virtualization and VDI. At the same time, increased mobility and collaboration has become a critical enabler to breaking down traditional organizational boundaries to improve decision making, customer responsiveness and business productivity. These strategies are having a major impact on the way WANs are being used.

Firstly, the distance between the user and the application is growing with increased numbers of home workers, mobile workers and smaller remote offices. In addition, flexible work patterns mean that remote offices have fewer concurrent users than previously. Secondly, the traffic flows across the WANs are changing with increased use of video, VoIP, server consolidation and virtualization deployments. Such changes can have unpredictable and unnecessary impact on end user productivity and IT efficiency if technology is not provided to increase visibility and improve application performance across the WAN.

Download Solutions Sheet

Expand Networks is a pioneer and innovator of WAN Optimization technologies. It’s solutions enable accelerated delivery and guaranteed performance of business critical applications and services within virtualized WAN environments and across distributed enterprise infrastructures.

MEETING USER EXPECTATIONS

Now more than ever, competitive differentiation is key to business success. Expand Network’s MACC makes consolidation, collaboration and mobility work in tandem to deliver increased business efficiency. Expand delivers innovative WAN optimization and application acceleration solutions to improve the performance of critical business applications and real-time meshed applications. Expand solutions ensure that your remote users will be provided with as close to possible the same application experience virtually everywhere.

MACC with HIVE Technology

The technology which provides the MACC with its unique capabilities is named HIVE (Heterogeneous Intelligent Virtual Environment) technology:

• Heterogeneous: Many different types of users working from (and moving between) different locations each with different WAN connectivity.
• Intelligent: Dynamic & adaptive operation based on locations and user type - Adaptive application visibility & QoS.
• Virtual: Multiple users using one distributed ‘Virtual cache’ for enhanced client performance.
• Environment: Seamlessly adapts to users environment using ‘Intelligent Location Detection’ for the home worker, mobile worker, the small office (collective branch) and large office/HQ.

Intelligent Location Detection

The MACC supports three modes of operation, which introduce new levels of flexibility. This is achieved through Intelligent Location Detection whereby MACC software intelligently understands its location and dynamically configures itself to the appropriate mode. The MACC will automatic detect the remote bandwidth available and automatically discover its peers if working in a small office. It will then automatically allocate QoS policies based on available bandwidth and provide comprehensive WAN optimization and application acceleration benefits wherever they are.

Distributed Virtual Cache

When used in a small office environment the MACC works collectively with other MACCs to form a shared distributed virtual cache, eliminating the need for either a physical or a virtual appliance at that location. MACC automatically discovers its peers in the same location and will intelligently use the distributed virtual cache for WAN optimization and acceleration. As a result, IT departments are able to easily plan and budget for small remote locations, as they are no longer faced with the dilemma of whether to provide an appliance or use clients. The user will now gain similar experience in the small branch office with the virtual cache as he would with an appliance, but also will gain optimization benefits when he leaves the office and becomes an individual user.

Modes of Operation

The MACC supports a wide variety of user working patterns to support the home worker, the occasional home worker, the road warrior or the small office. Users are able to move locations and the MACC will automatically optimize and accelerate application performance wherever they are. In collective mode users will experience similar performance gains to those remote users in a large branch with a physical or a virtual appliance.

Collective Mode

		This mode supports users who work in a small remote office or who may occasionally visit or work from such locations. When the user logs-in to the small remote branch, the MACC will auto-identify its peers in the branch and will form a collective distributed “virtual Cache”, providing similar WAN optimization and application acceleration benefits to those locations with a physical or virtual appliance. The collective mode supports monitoring and sharing of the WAN bandwidth at that location and prioritizes business applications in a shared fashion. This includes:-
Collective WAN optimization and application acceleration: Remote site members share TCP & UDP traffic application acceleration, compression and byte level caching. Shared object cache: To update data & applications, clients check the local virtual shared cache for recent updates, sharing objects between the collective members such as Web object, SBC and VDI bitmaps, and object deltas. Dynamic Application socket QoS: Provides Automatic application discovery and implements application QoS through a powerful socket based engine for both remote user-to-datacenter and remote user-to-remote user (peer-to-peer) applications. Supports application accelerator plug-ins (such as SBC and VDI). At the datacenter, all MACCs operating in collective mode at a small remote office are managed by ExpandView as a single logical entity. In addition, collective mode is able to be switched off for certain users, which maybe for reasons of security or confidential data.

Freestyle Mode

		This mode supports the remote user when working form home or on the road. In this mode the MACC acts as an individual client and automatically detects remote bandwidth available to it at the remote location. When the user connects, the MACC will automatically and transparently download the configuration definition that fits its location and IT policies. The MMACC will then automatically allocate QoS policies based on available bandwidth at the location. The Freestyle mode supports:-
Byte & object level caching and compression. TCP & UDP traffic application acceleration. Full range of application accelerator plug-ins, such as SBC and VDI applications. Fully interoperates with VPNs and firewalls transparently. Provides automatic application discovery and implements application QoS through a powerful QoS engine for both remote user-to-datacenter and remote user-to-remote user (peer-to-peer) applications.

Slipstream Mode

This mode supports the remote user who has called in to work in head office, regional office or large branch, which has an Expand accelerator installed (either physical of virtual appliance). In this mode the MACC automatically detects there is an appliance and lets the appliance carry out all the WAN optimization and application acceleration functions.

Application visibility and control

The MACC provides a new dimension of application control through adaptive application visibility and QoS. The MACC uses automatic application discovery and implements application QoS through a powerful QoS engine, as well as through application acceleration plug-ins for specific application types and protocols. Through these techniques, traffic can be identified with their applications and appropriate priorities allocated. Even encrypted and unclassified traffic can be associated to specific applications. Expand’s technology identifies over 400 applications automatically and applies specific optimization and acceleration to speed their delivery over the WAN. The result enables more user sessions per remote location as well as speeding up response times. This capability includes, but is not limited to:- Web2.0, IM and dynamic HTTP applications VoIP and Video VDI, ICA, RDP, ALP traffic for server based computing and VDI

Client to Client application QoS

IT managers need to monitor and control traffic flows directly between user desktops and laptops at remote locations to ensure quality of service for interactive office to office and remote user to user applications. MACC provides adaptive application visibility & QoS to manage all connected PCs in peer to peer application relationships. As such the MACC is able to identify remote user to user applications and provide optimization according to IT policies and the available bandwidth. For instance VoIP optimization to enhance the quality for IP calls.

MACC - Zero touch configuration and ease of install

The MACC is a Windows based software client that can be easy downloaded centrally via the ExpandView platform or an MSI utility. Management and IT policies are managed centrally on ExpandView with automatic configuration on the user’s desktop or laptop at connection time, according to their location, user ID and available bandwidth. This capability provides organizations with operational savings for MACC deployments with first time connect download and adaptive configuration.

Centralized multi-services integrated management

ExpandView supports the complete AceleratorOS and Accelerator family (physical, virtual and MACC) without the need for additional management hardware or software. Centralized management and detailed reporting deliver unsurpassed control over Wide Area Network resources and traffic.