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Although providing high availability for remote branch offices while lowering WAN costs have worked at odds with each other in the past, Radware may have found a way to meet both goals.
Next week Radware, best known as a leader for high-speed Layer 4 to Layer 7 switching, will address what officials believe is the growing need to provide multi-homing for branch office sites running Virtual Private Network links to ensure that connectivity is always available.
The new LinkProof Branch device allows enterprises to use multiple service provider lower-speed links at remote branch offices to replace more costly T-1 leased lines, while at the same time ensuring that bandwidth is available for critical business applications.
Because the device automatically fails over to a backup link and performs load balancing across the links, “you can replace an existing T-1 with two business rate DSL links. If you only look at connectivity costs (not enhanced productivity or reduced downtime), you will save over $8,000 a year for a branch office,” said CEO Roy Zisapel, who based the savings on AT&T pricing. “With the broadband connectivity options enterprises have today, they can save a lot of money and guarantee the availability they need,” added Zisapel, who is based in Tel Aviv, Israel.
In the case where a site requires bandwidth above T-1 rates, an enterprise could avoid the cost of a second T-1 line or fractional T-3 rates and save over $12,000 annually for a single branch, he added.
Zisapel believes the device is unique in its ability to multi-home Branch office VPN links. It provides virtual tunneling across multiple ISP links. When working in conjunction with a larger LinkProof multi-homing device at a data center, the LinkProof Branch can ensure that “the best route is taken for a particular users request when you have multiple ISPs,” he said.
The LinkProof Branch, which provides eight 10/100 Ethernet ports and supports an aggregate speed of 5Mbps, also runs Radwares SynApps Application Aware Services software. SynApps provides bandwidth management for prioritizing different applications and security functions.
It is available next week starting at $4,250, with SynApps priced at $2000.
Although the LinkProof Branch is targeted at branch offices for larger enterprises, Radware reseller Enrique Krajmalnik sees greater demand among small and medium-sized businesses. “Weve had a lot of small to medium customers that have mission critical, Internet-based applications and use DSL. Those links have been problematic at times, even though the reliability has improved over the last few years,” said Krajmalnik, president of The Illumne Group Inc. in Denver, Colo. For a company to eliminate the downtime and lost revenue using a box thats a couple thousand dollars—itll pay for itself quickly,” he said.