Exinda Puts New Spin on Managing WAN Optimization

Exinda Networks at Interop on May 21 will put a new spin on WAN optimization/application acceleration when it launches a hosted software-as-a-service solution for managing its WAN optimization appliances.

The companys Service Delivery Point SAAS will allow customers to simplify and reduce the cost of installing, configuring, monitoring and reporting on the performance of its wide area network optimization appliances.

“Weve applied the Salesforce.com model to our space. SDP allows our customers to manage their WAN optimization from a hosted environment,” said Con Nikolouzakis, CEO of Exinda, which started five years ago in Australia and recently established U.S. headquarters in Boston. “All the management is done outside of their network. Theres no need to download management software, train staff, or deploy and maintain hardware and software,” he added.

Exinda, thanks to its heritage in providing traffic monitoring and management over WANs, can in its SDP provide visibility into network usage by applications to see how they are performing across the WAN.

“In the past they were more of a [quality of service] and performance measurement provider, more like [Packeteers] PacketShaper. Theyve added newer optimization features,” said industry analyst Joe Skorupa for Gartner, in Fremont, Calif.

/zimages/1/28571.gifTo read more about PacketShaper,click here.

Exinda claims about 1,000 customers to date use its x700 and x800 appliance families, which offer a mix of monitoring, traffic shaping, QOS, compression, policy enforcement, application acceleration, protocol optimization and caching.

Nikolouzakis believes the SDP service can help enterprises reduce the cost of managing their WAN optimization appliances by 65 to 70 percent. Without it, users have to download central management software, configure their units to contact that software, set up a server to run the software and use it to configure all devices. Whenever an update or firmware release comes out, users have to update the appliances.

“Were saying you install the appliances on your network and then just go to our Web site to manage the appliances,” he said. “Once the box is installed and configured at the remote location, you dont have to [physically] go back to manage it. When we do a software upgrade, its on our Web site. The next time you log in, you have it.”

The SDP provides reports on applications, performance statistics and resource usage, including top inbound and outbound applications, top URLs, and top hosts. Historical statistics are maintained for capacity planning.

Exinda will target the SDP at enterprises and managed service providers offering hosted WAN optimization services. It is due June 30 and is priced at $30 per managed appliance per month for a 10-appliance license or $10 per appliance per month for 500 or more appliances.

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