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The need for a dedicated physical appliance to handle WANoptimization tasks, in many cases, is a thing of the past,according to experts who participated in a panel discussion Tuesdayat Interop in Las Vegas. That said, however, the market for such devices doesn't appear tobe drying up anytime soon. MORE INTEROP: Interop puts software-defined networking in limelight "We don't have any use cases where we found that you absolutelyneed to have a physical appliance," said Certeon CTO and VicePresident of Engineering Donato Buccella. "There isn't a singleplace where we would say, 'Oh, this cannot be done with software.'" Of course, that's dependent on the presence of a modern virtualization solution, he added. And there are a number of other factors thatmake the question of hardware's obsolescence in the WANoptimization sector a lot more complicated, noted Riverbed ChiefScientist Mark Day. For the branch office -- which may or may not have technicallysavvy staffers on-site -- the relative simplicity of a physicalappliance is still highly attractive. "You have something that you can take out of the box and have biglabels on it that say 'plug this in here,' and you get up andrunning," he said. Compliance issues, institutional culture andother extenuating circumstances also contribute to the continuedneed for WAN optimization appliances in a physical form. On the other hand, as Buccella pointed out, simply making theargument that hardware represents an easier deployment propositionthan software is problematic in certain respects -- while physicaldevices have to be shipped somewhere, purely software-based WANoptimization can just be downloaded and installed on an existingmachine or VM. What's more, the issues of convenience highlighted by Day cut bothways, according to Buccella. Sending a physical appliance to Chinaor India, for example, could be a much bigger hassle thanimplementing such a system remotely. Day conceded that "the trend here is very much in favor of thevalue being in software." However, he added, this fact on its owndoesn't mean that hardware is going away. "There are people that get value out of [physical appliances] and Idon't think there's any reason to stop selling them," he said.Moreover, those physical appliances have another key advantage --what you see is what you get. "As soon as you get into software-land, you wind up with theseasterisks. And the asterisks say things like 'assuming that you'vegot something that is at least as good as what we told you to get,and assuming you aren't doing something stupid with it ...' There'sa lot of conditionals in there," Day said. In the end, of course, the dominant model going forward will be theone that customers are most comfortable with. Those most familiarwith the advantages and disadvantages of the hardware and softwaremodels will be the ones best-equipped to make the right choice. Email Jon Gold atand follow him on Twitter at@NWWJonGold. Read more about lan and wan in Network World's LAN & WAN section. I am an expert from ophthalmology-instrument.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Portable Pulse Oximeter , China Portable ECG Machine, Ophthalmology Instruments,and more.
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