WAN optimization has long been a mechanism for reducing bandwidth cost and moving more data over a network faster. However, TRAC's upcoming WAN Optimization Spectrum report shows that organizations no longer see WAN optimization deployments as simply a way to better manage capacity of their traditional wide area networks. Five key findings of this state-of-the market study include:

User experience is becoming the key performance indicator for evaluating WAN performance

TRAC's recent survey of 332 users who implemented WAN Optimization techniques showed that the quality of end-user experience is the leading performance indicator for evaluating WAN performance by a significant margin (53% of respondents, compared to 11% for the next highest measure).

This finding indicates that organizations are discovering that traditional metrics, such as network throughput or data reduction, are no longer serving as an overall indicator of how the solution provides value for an end-user. As a result, network administrators cannot focus exclusively on optimization or acceleration capabilities anymore and need to ensure that they have full visibility and control when it comes to application traffic over the WAN.

WAN optimization is not a single market

TRAC's research identified 5 sub-markets for WAN optimization. These are:

Each of these markets have different dynamics, growth rates and unique buyer requirements. As a result, WAN optimization technology vendors fare differently when they are evaluated in each of these areas, while some of them only compete in one or two markets.

Emergence of cloud and mobility is changing the definition of Wide Area Network

Users are increasingly accessing business critical applications on mobile devices, including smartphones, laptops and tablets, from a variety of locations, while expecting optimal quality of user experience. However, traditional WAN optimization solutions were not designed to support these types of use cases. TRAC's WAN Optimization Spectrum study shows that software solutions for optimizing application delivery to mobile devices is the number one technology capability that organizations are looking to deploy in the next 12 months. Currently, only a few vendors are able to provide this type of capability.

TRAC's Spectrum study shows that one of the key reasons organizations are replacing WAN optimization solutions with products from other vendors is ineffectiveness of their existing solutions when deployed in Cloud environments.

As these trends progress, it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine the “edge” of the WAN, the spot where the company’s conceptual framework ends and other vendors or users begin. A Wide Area Network, which previously may have only encompassed the company’s physical locations, can now be thought of as including mobile users, cloud providers and potentially anyone else the WAN optimization technique needs to extend to. The definition of a Wide Area Network is changing and organizations are increasingly finding that traditional approaches for WAN optimization are becoming less effective.

Emergence of new deployment methods

TRAC's Spectrum Study shows that while physical appliances are still the most predominant method for deploying WAN optimization solutions, other methods of implementation, including software and Cloud services, are showing strong growth rates.

TRAC's research shows that organizations who are deploying WAN optimization are still not optimizing 54% of their remote locations. This comes as a result of challenges associated with deploying physical appliances and the inability to cost justify these technology purchases. The innovations in the WAN optimization space and new deployment methods have created a number of new use cases for deploying these solutions and expanded an addressable market for these vendors.

WAN optimization technologies are becoming one of the key enablers of major IT projects

Organizations are reporting that some of the key reasons they are deploying (or replacing) WAN solutions are deployments of technologies such as video, mobility, virtualization and Cloud. Additionally, organizations are increasingly finding WAN optimization technologies effective when dealing with emerging IT management challenges, such as Big Data. The value of these technologies and IT projects heavily relies on network performance and the quality of user experience. For that reason, organizations are seeing WAN optimization capabilities as integral elements when ensuring that they get the most out of the investments that they are making in modernizing their IT infrastructure and bringing their IT services closer to end-users.

These trends are significantly impacting how WAN optimization solutions are being evaluated and deployed. Additionally they are changing the role that WAN optimization technologies play in end-user organizations. The addressable market for WAN optimization solutions is increasing, and the impact of these solutions are spreading across different areas of IT and business and benefiting more users. In addition, WAN optimization has been elevated to a more strategic level in the CIO’s viewpoint. What was once seen mostly as a cost-saving measure now has real strategic impact on the entire organization and addresses some of the key items on CIOs’ agendas. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, WAN optimization vendors need to prove that they are willing to venture out of their comfort zones, innovate and build capabilities for effectively addressing new use cases for WAN optimization.