eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
WAN optimization provider Peribit Networks Inc. this week will move up into the Layer 7 acceleration space when it launches its new Application Flow Acceleration technique.
The technology, launched with a new branch office accelerator and software upgrade, addresses inefficiencies in Microsoft Corp. messaging and file services protocols as well as those of Web applications, according to Peribit officials in Santa Clara, Calif.
As more enterprises Web-enable their applications and embark on server consolidation projects, the latency introduced when applications traverse the WAN is creating big headaches for IT staffs, said Joe Skorupa, an analyst at Gartner Inc., in Fremont, Calif.
“Server centralization is a big issue. And we see organizations moving toward the Web browser as the universal application interface,” Skorupa said.
The Peribit AppFlow technique goes beyond TCP acceleration to speed applications based on the MAPI (Messaging API), the CIFS (Common Internet File System) used by Microsoft File Services and HTTP.
While Peribits existing packet flow acceleration technology addresses inefficiencies in TCP/IP, the applications that benefit from that technique are limited to FTP applications and bulk data transfers, as well as backup.
With Web applications, HTTP requests only one object at a time. But because most Web applications incorporate dozens of objects, building a single page over a slow-speed link can take time. AppFlow eliminates much of the WAN round-trip time after a page is initially downloaded.
One early user, working to try to “give back” the performance that Exchange users had when the server was local to them, found “a dramatic performance increase, especially in regard to e-mail attachments,” said Martin Cox, a technical services manager at The BOC Group plc., in Wilmington, Mass. For instance, a 1MB file would take more than a minute to open; now it takes about 15 seconds.
The CIFS acceleration “shows great promise,” Cox said. “A 21MB file took 7 minutes on initial copy, 12 seconds for subsequent opens.”
Peribits new SM-250 for branch offices implements Peribits Network Sequence Mirroring technology, which records patterns found in sessions, packets and flows, and stores those on a hard disk. When those patterns are repeated, they are identified and removed from data streams.
Peribit also tuned its product line at the high end to scale caching in the data center. Up to six SM-500 appliances can be clustered as clients on an SR-100 Sequence Reducer, which scales sequence caching to OC-3 connections and adds up to 3 terabytes of disk capacity.
The new AppFlow software works across all Peribit products and is due later this month. The SM-250, also due this month, is priced starting at $4,995.