1 12527 wanopt key to effective private cloud final

8/3/2019 1 12527 WANOpt Key to Effective Private Cloud FINAL

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WAN Otzaton: T k to t rat ods 1

Organizations of all shapes and sizes are lookingto private cloud implementations to increase IT ef-ciency and help end users collaborate more easily.Theyre after benets that include lower costs,easier management of IT resources, improveddisaster recovery and employee productivity gains.But organizations are also nding out that such ad-vantages can only be achieved when they ensuretheir wide-area networks can offer speedy accessto centralized IT resources for faraway users.

Addressing any network limitations can makethe difference between success or failure of acloud-based system, which, in turn, can impactan organizations effectiveness and competi-tive advantage in its market. WAN optimizationsolutions, like those Riverbed Technology offers,can accelerate private cloud implementationsand add a layer of visibility and intelligence toenable users to be productive, while helping todeliver the cost and management efcienciesbusinesses require.

Riverbed Technology solutions were the keyto one organizations successful private clouddeployment. When David van den Berg joinedthe Australian-based construction and contractmining rm Macmahon as CIO in late 2008, hefound a user base practically in revolt, complainingof slow application response times for the rmsCitri xenApp applications due to inadequte WANperformance. This was shortly after the companyhad centralized some 200 servers at its data centerin Perth and created a private cloud.

The project was failing, and there was mas-sive pushback from the business, van den Bergrecalls. The only way we could make it work wasto deploy WAN optimization infrastructure.

Van den Berg was already familiar with WAN opti-mization technology from his eperience at a previ-ous company that deployed Riverbed Steelheadappliances. He quickly put the Steelhead productson his short list, ran a pilot test, and began deploy-ing them to the companys 30-plus sites.

With their ability to not only compress trafc, but alsooptimize specic applications and protocols - includ-ing the Citri ICA protocol - the Steelhead appliancesgave users the performance they were after, improv-ing user productivity by about 20 percent. Whatsmore, the appliances enabled Macmahon to reducethe size of many of its WAN links by half or more.Given the savings in bandwidth, the return on invest-ment was about nine months, van den Berg says.

yor own rat od

WAN optimization enables companies to realizethe benets they hope to get from private cloudimplementations, which are essentially consoli-dated groups of virtual servers and storage sys-tems housing applications that users can accessfrom wherever they may be. Private clouds aredifferent from public cloud services in that the ITresources are owned and operated as a utility bythe end-user organization, rather than providedas a service by a third party.

WAN Optimization:

The key to effective private cloudsAddressing any

network limitationscan make the

difference betweensuccess or failure of

a cloud-basedsystem, which, in

turn, can impact an

organizationseffectiveness and

competitiveadvantage in

its market.


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The private cloud concept was born out of twomajor trends in IT in recent years: centralizationand virtualization. Centralizing servers enables ITto more easily manage and control resources, asopposed to trying to manage servers in remotelocations with little or no IT staff. Virtualization

enables far greater utilization of servers, storageand other IT resources, along with greater e-ibility in where applications run.

Together, centralization and virtualization enableimproved security because most resources arein one physical location and its simpler to stan-dardize security patches and updates. Virtualiza-tion also makes it far easier for IT to keep up withbusiness demands, with the ability to spin upnew servers much more quickly. Disaster recov-ery is likewise improved, as companies can moreeasily create snapshots of their environments atany point in time, replicate them to off-site serv-

ers, and fail over to them if need be with just afew clickswith little to no business disruption.

It all adds up to a simplied, more nimble ITenvironment, where IT can more readily meetchanging business requirements. Further, privateclouds can often dramatically lower IT operationscosts versus a distributed server infrastructure,due to the increased utilization and simpliedmanagement.Gttng t WAN rgt

A crucial element to any private cloud, however,

is the ability to provide good, reliable applicationperformance and data transfers over the WAN.As organizations centralize IT resources in a pri-vate cloud, they increase the distance betweenthose resources and end users. Increased dis-tance naturally means additional latency, whichslows performance. Buying more bandwidth mayseem the obvious solution, but it can be so e-pensive as to thwart the private cloud businesscase. Whats more, additional bandwidth wontsolve performance problems caused by latencyor issues related to the behavior of certain proto-cols and applications.

As the Macmahon eample shows, it takes WANoptimization to ensure the success of a privatecloud implementation. And the WAN optimizationsolution must be able to address each of threedistinct issues that can all lead to performanceproblems:n Insufcient WAN bandwidthn Inefcient network transport protocolsn Inefcient application protocols

Rrd Stad

Riverbed Steelhead products address each ofthose issues. Customers can choose from threeversions of Steelhead products:n The Steelhead appliance thats known for its

ease of installation and manageabilityn Steelhead client software for desktops andlaptops, which brings WAN optimization capabili-ties to mobile usersn The Virtual Steelhead, a new software-onlyformat that brings new eibility in how usersdeploy the product (see sidebar)

nDATA STReAmliNiNGSteelhead products incorporate numerous tech-nologies to address all aspects of WAN optimiza-tion. At the most basic level is data streamlining,which eliminates most redundant data goingacross the network. Data the appliance has

seen before is stored locally, so only changesneed to travel over the WAN. If a user retrieves aPowerPoint presentation from a remote server,for eample, the le may be compressed buttransferred in its entirety the rst time. Subse-quently, only changes need to be sent across theWAN, thus dramatically reducing the amount ofbandwidth required.

nTRANSpORT STReAmliNiNGRiverbed also streamlines chatty transport pro-tocols such as TCP by providing many acknowl-edgments locally, thus limiting the number ofroundtrips that packets require and reducing the

impact of latency over long-distance WAN links.The appliance can also epand the amount ofdata referenced in each packet and ensure pack-ets dont suffer delays in the face of congestion.

nApplicATiON STReAmliNiNGSimilarly, Steelhead products provide specic op-timization techniques with deep understandingof more than a dozen application protocols (seechart)far more than most other WAN optimiza-tion vendors. Here again, the Steelhead familytakes steps to eliminate unnecessary roundtrips,perform more tasks locally, and reduce the per-formance problems caused by high latency.

nQoSWhile data, transport and application streamlin-ing will often be enough to deliver great perfor-mance, in some instancesespecially wherebandwidth is scarceusers will also want to beable to prioritize certain trafc. Steelhead prod-ucts have their own built-in quality of service(QoS) features and are also fully compatible with

Private cloudscan often

dramatically lowerIT operations

costs versus adistributed server

infrastructure, dueto the increased

utilization andsimplied

management.


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other QoS tools to ensure the most importantapplications always get the bandwidth theyrequire when they need it.

nmANAGemeNT STReAmliNiNGSteelhead products are also eceptionally easy

to deploy and to manage, another differentiator.Most customers deploy the device directly inthe network path, with one wire coming into theSteelhead appliance from the router, and anothergoing out to a switch. The products auto-discov-er each other across the WAN, collect informa-tion about the type of trafc thats running, andimmediately take steps to optimize it. Theres noneed to congure tunnels between devices. TheRiverbed Central Management Console (CMC)makes it simple to manage all Steelhead prod-ucts centrally.

nScAle AND hiGh AvAilAbiliTy

Large enterprises will appreciate the abilityof the Steelhead product family to scale, bothin terms of high throughput and the ability tohandle large numbers of locations and users.A single Steelhead appliance can handle some100,000 connections, which may translateto roughly 20,000 users. Using the RiverbedInterceptor, up to 25 Steelhead appliances canbe clustered to scale up for even more usersand provide for high availability, enabling cus-tomers to support hundreds of thousands ofuserssignicant scalability in a private cloudenvironment.

nbRANch Office bOxAnd while the initial thrust behind private cloudinitiatives is to centralize as many resources aspossible, companies often require some serversin branch locations to handle edge services suchas printing, Web ltering and security applica-tions. The Riverbed Services Platform (RSP) is aVMware-based platform on which users can runall such services, providing a branch ofce bosolution that supports many best-of-breed offer-ings from vendors such as Microsoft, Infoblo,McAfee, Websense and others.

nviDeO SuppORTVideo puts a big strain on any network, butRiverbed can deal with it using QoS capabili-ties as well as through its partnerships withvideo solution providers such as Microsoft,Polycom and Accordent. When multiple usersin an ofce want to watch the same video, foreample, one stream is sent across the WANand then split up locally, thus conserving WANbandwidth.

cstor wsThe ability to address not only data compres-sion and deduplication, but also transport andapplication protocol streamlining, made the Riv-erbed Steelhead appliance attractive to Master-

Brand Cabinets, says Krish Mani, eecutive vicepresident and CIO for the rm. MasterBrand isin the midst of an ongoing consolidation projectas it tries to centralize IT resources after a seriesof acquisitions and move to a shared servicesmodel of IT.

An eperiment in 2007 with another WANoptimization vendor left MasterBrand skepticalbecause the product was not able to scale tohandle its main data center and some 35 remotelocations. But a Riverbed Steelhead pilot for aWeb-based ERP application used for schedul-ing and transportation applications delivered a

dramatic performance improvement and madebelievers of MasterBrand.

We found an immediate 450 percent bandwidthimprovement, says Jadd Miller, senior networkengineer for MasterBrand. That translates intosignicant business benets.

In applications where weve enabled WANoptimization, it has increased user productiv-ity between 20 percent and 40 percent, Manisays. At the same time, the Steelhead applianceshave decreased the time it takes to run routinesystem chores, including backups and batch jobs

such as scheduling, by 30 percent to 50 percent,conservatively.

Reducing the window for those jobs us-ing WAN optimization means we are able toprovide more availability of the systems forthe manufacturing plants, Mani notes. Itsa direct correlation to the business to havethose systems up and enable shifts to increaseoperations in the plants.

nScAlAbiliTyAs with MasterBrand, scalability issues hinderedPhilip Morris initial attempt at WAN optimizationsome ve years agoa signicant issue whenan organization has 680 locations. The companyhad been pursuing a strategy of applicationcentralization for nearly a decade, but ran intoperformance problems for some key applicationsin areas including Asia Pacic, Latin America andsome parts of Eastern Europe, says Nigel Larkin,manager of IS and telecommunications strategyat Philip Morris.

In applicationswhere weve

enabled WANoptimization,

it has increaseduser productivity

between20 percent and

40 percent.KRiSh mANi,

ExECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT &CIO, MASTERBRAND


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After evaluating ve products, the companyconducted pilot tests with Cisco and Riverbed.The Riverbed Steelhead product family got thenod, in part because of its ability to scale, thanksto the Riverbed Interceptor.

Today, the company has Steelhead appliancesdeployed in about 130 locations across Europe,Asia and Latin America. The products are deliver-ing a roughly 50 percent bandwidth reductionoverall, which translates into greatly improvedapplication performance.

At one of those locationsa Philip Morris site inBrazil lagging performance could not be solvedsimply by adding bandwidth, so the companydeployed Riverbed Steelhead appliances. It im-mediately achieved a 50 percent reduction inWAN bandwidth and application performanceimproved dramaticallyso much so that users

began using centralized applications far morethan they had before, prompting the need formore bandwidth. With the increase in perfor-mance and the improved visibility of the trafc,we could easily demonstrate the ROI of theSteelhead appliances and the line upgrade,Larkin says.

In a nutshell, the Steelhead appliances haveplayed a key role in the success of the compa-nys strategy to consolidate its three major datacenters into one single data center in Switzer-land. The consolidation of many services wouldnot have been possible without this type of

[WAN optimization] technology, Larkin says.

neASe Of uSeAnother attribute that initially attracted Larkin toRiverbed was the products ease of deployment.Theres limited conguration to be done, hesays, whereas a competing product from Ciscowas very difcult to deploy. Additionally, theCMC enables him to manage all his Steelheaddevices from the Swiss data center.

MasterBrands Miller was likewise inuenced byhow easy it is to install Steelhead products.

Im the only one of me in the organization, hesays. It would be cost-prohibitive for me to haveto travel to each of the remote sites to install theappliance. Instead, Miller precongures eachSteelhead appliance himself, ships it to a contactat the remote location, and walks that personthrough the installation process. Were done in15 minutes, Miller says, even though the remoteperson is not an IT staffer.

nRApiD ROiThese benets not only help companies deliveron the promise of their private cloud implemen-tations, butas Macmahons nine-month ROIindicatesthey add up to an attractive businesscase for Riverbed Steelhead products.

Medi-Clinic, a private hospital group based inSouth Africa, installed some 58 Steelhead ap-pliances to support its private cloud initiative.The devices enabled a 300 percent increase inbandwidth utilization, enabling the company toavoid epensive bandwidth upgrades. We re-covered our investment in the Steelhead prod-ucts within 11 months, says Deon Myburgh,group IT operations manager for Medi-Clinic.That gure is based on bandwidth alone, anddoesnt factor in user productivity gains, whichare signicant given that the company is enjoy-ing an average 80 percent improvement in le

download speeds.

MasterBrands Mani says his company avoidedspending $105,000 per month to buy the sameamount of bandwidth the Steelhead appliancesdelivered by optimizing eist ing links. Thattranslates to a very rapid ROI, he says, notingthat much of the benet his company derivesis from employee productivity gains achieveddue to the increased application performance.

Based on his eperience, in order to deliver theperformance users require in a private cloud en-vironment, Mani says, WAN optimization is not

an option for companies. Its a necessity.

Ts jst n: vrta Stad

Riverbed has recently delivered the VirtualSteelhead, a VMware-based version of itsSteelhead WAN optimization technology. VirtuaSteelhead runs on virtual servers alongsideother applications, enabling companies tofurther consolidate their environments. It canalso run on ruggedized platforms, etendingthe WAN optimization technology to harshenvironments such as the military and space-constrained locations where an appliancewouldnt easily t. In joining the eisting Steel-head appliance and Steelhead Mobile softwarefor laptops and desktops, the Virtual Steelheadgives users another option for WAN optimiza-tion technology deployment.

Best in classfor applicationoptimization

Riverbed currentlystreamlines moreapplication protocolsthan any other WANoptimization vendor,including the following:

CIFS

CIFS Print

Citri ICA

EMC SRDFEncrypted MAPI/

Echange 2010

FCIP

HTTP

Lotus Notes

Mac CIFS

MS-SQL

NFS

OracleSharePoint

SSL

*For more information, go to:www.Rrd.o
http://www.riverbed.com/http://www.riverbed.com/http://www.riverbed.com/

1 12527 wanopt key to effective private cloud final

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