Best WAN Optimization Software
WAN Optimization software provides features that allow users to improve the performance of their applications running on the wide area network (WAN).
To qualify for inclusion in the category, a product must:
Best WAN Optimization Software At A Glance
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Barracuda's Cloud Generation Firewalls redefine the role of the Firewall from a perimeter security solution to a distributed network optimization solution that scales across any number of locations an
15,253 Twitter followers
Automated acceleration to deliver the best website and mobile app experiences imaginable
115,448 Twitter followers
Accelerate your applications and optimize quality of experience for your users.
721,403 Twitter followers
The performance of networks and applications directly impacts business productivity. Riverbed draws from nearly two decades of experience in driving network and application performance over Wide Area
23,922 Twitter followers
HorizonIQ’s Connectivity services provide high-performance, enterprise-grade networking across data centers, cloud environments, and edge locations. Solutions include private transport, cloud on-ramps
4,304 Twitter followers
CenturyLink® SD-WAN solutions integrate disparate connectivity types into a seamless hybrid software-defined WAN for complete visibility and enhanced performance of your entire network ecosystem throu
9,139 Twitter followers
FatPipe Networks WAN Optimization technology offers the highest performance level of WAN Optimization and optimization available using patented and patent pending technology. With FatPipe WAN Optimiza
1,076 Twitter followers
Ipanema SD-WAN paves the way for unprecedented application performance on your network. Application intelligence that transforms your user experience.
29,501 Twitter followers
Teridion is a superior cloud-based global connectivity platform. Teridion’s network delivers high-performance WAN as a service to enterprise customers worldwide. The company was founded 2013 by Intern
Reduce bandwidth cost and Accelerate application speeds with WAN Optimization. Wan Optimization reduce network costs and accelerate network speeds through TCP Acceleration, Compression, Byte-Caching,
118 Twitter followers
100% cloud-based phone, mobility and unified communications system to give your businesses a collaborative edge.
Aryaka's WAN Optimization as-a-Service is a cloud-based solution designed to enhance network efficiency and application performance for globally distributed enterprises. By integrating WAN optimizatio
12,108 Twitter followers
Exinda Network Orchestrator is built for network managers and administrators who want one solution to handle the way users, traffic, devices, and applications behave on the network. With Exinda Networ
29,663 Twitter followers
Alluvio Network Performance Management makes it easy to monitor, troubleshoot, and analyze what’s happening across your hybrid network environment. With end-to-end visibility and actionable insights,
23,922 Twitter followers
Sangfor WANO (WAN Optimization) can be deployed in the WAN gateway of data centres and branch offices. Through traffic reduction, stream compression, stream cache, protocol acceleration and other lead
13,273 Twitter followers
Learn More About WAN Optimization Software
What is WAN Optimization Software?
Wide area network (WAN) optimization software improves network congestion and latency by implementing bandwidth optimization techniques such as compression, caching, data deduplication, and network prioritization. Businesses and customers do not want to wait for their web page to load. WAN optimization, also known as WAN acceleration, can help by reducing the time it takes for information to travel from a company’s data center to its remote locations. Instead of buying new bandwidth, businesses can use WAN optimization software to provide fast internet applications despite increased traffic demand. This helps to ensure that customers do not get frustrated with delays.
Companies may determine which WAN optimization methods they want to use depending on connectivity, hardware locations, legacy application environment, and integration with other network types such as a local area network (LAN). Other times businesses may choose software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) which is a virtual WAN architecture. Regardless of the methods, it should address common issues such as latency, duplication, packet loss, and congestion in certain areas of the network. The end goal is to get faster data retrieval and web application performance for end users by improving network performance in real time.
What are the Common Features of WAN Optimization Software?
The following are some core features within WAN optimization software that can help users to manage their network latency and congestion:
Bandwidth optimization: WAN optimization software tackles bandwidth latency and congestion by caching (save frequently used contents on local server), data deduplication (send hashes data instead of actual data), protocol optimization (reduce chatty protocol), path optimization (transfer data through a less congested connection such as Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) or SD-WAN), location optimization (based on branch offices), and so on. Other more advanced optimization techniques may require buying hardware or advanced features from vendors.
Flexible deployment: WAN optimization solutions need to be easily deployed on major network virtual ware and hardware such as routers, servers, hypervisors, firewalls, and computers with high throughput (gigabytes level). Some solutions are also cloud ready or cloud natives. That means that they can be deployed in infrastructure as a service or platform as a service environment quickly. It should also be deployed in an SD-WAN environment.
IT control and visibility: A complete WAN solution should also monitor infrastructure resources since it needs to know resource availability to determine how to optimize the network. With full visibility, IT teams can set up service policies with the WAN optimizer to automatically manage their network based on availability.
What are the Benefits of WAN Optimization Software?
Application acceleration: WAN optimization software uses traffic shaping to indirectly accelerate application performance and reduce bandwidth consumption. By revamping existing network connections, the software can increase performance several times for on-premises and cloud applications in hybrid environments. Based on the applications, the WAN optimizer can distinguish which network traffic is critical to the applications and select an optimal routing path for the data transfer. In the end, clients will experience a rapid and secure user experience with WAN optimization appliances.
Cost saving: This type of software could reduce bandwidth utilization significantly and defers costly network bandwidth upgrades. The percentage of savings varies based on the infrastructure.
Ease of management: IT staff can designate custom policies and alerts to better manage their network performance. IT projects that heavily rely on WAN and data centers can be managed in a centralized platform. Problems will be resolved faster with high visibility into the application network and centralized dashboard.
Challenges with WAN Optimization Software
Software solutions can come with their own set of challenges.
Network integration: Although many WAN optimization vendors will mention that their software will be compatible with major brand software and hardware, there is no guarantee that it will run smoothly in the client’s environments. Modern network structure can be very complicated especially in hybrid environments with legacy systems, which is quite common nowadays. Even if it does run smoothly, there is also the potential problem with scalability for critical applications. Can the software perform load balancing on high throughput requirements to achieve WAN acceleration? Companies need to test the software in their own on-premise and virtualization environment before commitment.
Data regulation: Companies need to ensure that the WAN performance policies won’t transfer sensitive data into unsecured or unauthorized channels. Selecting a less congested path or protocols may be more efficient and save money, but that doesn’t mean that it is safe. Some WAN optimization software can automatically avoid this situation, but IT teams still need to establish network security rules to make sure that won’t happen or adopt SD-WAN for further customization.
IT team alignment: Companies should not automatically expect that their current IT team already has the necessary talent to manage WAN. The modern-day network is complicated and many IT personnel are specialized in specific layers of IT stacks. WAN optimization needs both lower layer (network and physical) and higher layer (application and transport) talents. Either different talents from different layers work together or companies need to hire new IT professionals who specialize in multiple layers (TCP acceleration). Otherwise, there will be a conflict of management as to who manages which part of the network from separate teams. This will slow down the time to solve important network issues.
How to Buy WAN Optimization Software
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for WAN Optimization Software
The company’s needs when searching for WAN optimization solutions often relate to specific network performance issues. For example, the user may be most interested in improving performance for latency. Buyers should make a ranked list of the WAN optimization features that most directly address the problems they’re trying to solve, then reference G2 reviews to find the right fit.
Prioritizing the desired feature set can help narrow down the potential pool of WAN optimizers, allowing teams to then apply further considerations for budget, ease of integration with other systems, security requirements, and more. This holistic approach empowers buyers to move forward with a focused checklist, which can be used in conjunction with G2 scoring to select the best WAN optimization product for the business.
Compare WAN Optimization Software Products
Create a long list
Buyers should start with a large pool of WAN optimization software vendors. Keeping the desired must-have features in mind, buyers must perform consistent inquiries during demos so they can effectively compare the pros and cons of each software.
Create a short list
It helps to cross-reference the results of initial vendor evaluations with G2 reviews from other buyers, the combination of which will help narrow it down to three to five products. From there, buyers can compare pricing and features to determine the best fit.
Conduct demos
Companies should make sure to demo all of the products that end up on their short list. The basic step of the demo is to start with a basic optimization setup. It’s important to know if the product identifies network latency, specific congested areas, and performance metrics like packet and bandwidth data. It’s also helpful to test the policy configuration and reporting function. It is important that the selected product fully reflects the entire enterprise network ecosystem and topology.
Selection of WAN Optimization Software
Choose a selection team
Regardless of a company’s size, it’s important to involve the most relevant personnel when beginning the WAN optimization software selection process. Larger companies may include individual team members to fill roles such as system owners, IT professionals, and developers who will be working with the software closely. Smaller companies with fewer employees might overlap roles.
Negotiation
Many companies offer full network-related platforms that go beyond WAN optimization to include application performance monitoring, cloud infrastructure monitoring, and more. While some companies will not budge on the configurations of their packages, buyers looking to trim costs should try to negotiate down to the specific functions that matter to them to get the best price. For example, a vendor’s pricing page where WAN optimization functionality is only included with a robust all-in-one monitoring package, whereas a sales conversation may prove otherwise.
Final decision
After this stage, it is important to perform a trial run with a small selection of IT professionals or developers. This will help ensure that the software of choice integrates well with the company’s data centers, an IT administrator’s systems setup, or a developer’s day-to-day work. If the tool is well liked and well utilized, the buyer can take that as a sign that their selection is the right one. If not, reevaluation of the options may be necessary.
