Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization Fundamentals

Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization Fundamentals

Introduction
Chapter 1. Strategic Information Technology Initiatives
Chapter 2. Barriers to Application Performance
Chapter 3. Aligning Network Resources with Business Priority
Chapter 4. Overcoming Application-Specific Barriers
Chapter 5. Content Delivery Networks
Chapter 6. Overcoming Transport and Link Capacity Limitations
Chapter 7. Examining Accelerator Technology Scenarios
Appendix A. Common Ports and Assigned Applications
Appendix B. Ten Places for More Information

This book is intended for anyone who is interested in learning about the foundational components of application acceleration and WAN optimization, including IT directors, network managers, application infrastructure engineers, and systems engineers. It is assumed that you have a high-level understanding of the end-to-end application architectures and protocols found within many enterprise and commercial companies.

It is also assumed that you understand basic networking principals, including routing, switching, quality of service (QoS), and network monitoring. Unlike other books that dive into the abyss of device- and version-specific implementation guidelines and configurations, this book focuses on the technologies at large, looking at the numerous components that comprise a WAN optimization and application acceleration solution at a technology architecture level.

How This Book Is Organized

Although this book could be read cover to cover, it is designed to be flexible and allow you to easily move between Chapters and sections of Chapters to cover just the material that you are most interested in.

This book has seven Chapters covering the following topics:

• Chapter 1, "Strategic Information Technology Initiatives," introduces the challenges faced by IT organizations and business at large, setting the tone for the relevance and importance of WAN optimization and application acceleration solutions.
• Chapter 2, "Barriers to Application Performance," builds upon the first Chapter and examines what are the fundamental barriers to application performance in WAN environments and the need for a holistic solution to application performance.
• Chapter 3, "Aligning Network Resources with Business Priority," discusses how the network is the platform that touches all aspects of an organization and why it serves as the foundation for an infrastructure conducive to application performance.
• Chapter 4, "Overcoming Application-Specific Barriers," discusses how accelerators can work within the context of specific application protocols to improve user performance and efficiency over the WAN while minimizing bandwidth consumption. These topics, along with those presented in Chapter 5, are commonly viewed together as application acceleration.
• Chapter 5, "Content Delivery Networks," examines how accelerators can be leveraged to ensure that the right information is available in the right location at the right time through intelligent acquisition and distribution of information among accelerators throughout the network.
• Chapter 6, "Overcoming Transport and Link Capacity Limitations," examines application-agnostic techniques for improving application performance and efficiency over the WAN through integration at the transport layer. These topics include compression, data suppression, and transport protocol optimization and are commonly referred to as WAN optimization.
• Chapter 7, "Examining Accelerator Technology Scenarios," shows four scenarios of how WAN optimization and application acceleration solutions have provided benefit to four customer environments.

The book concludes with two Appendixes:

• 
  Appendix A, "Common Ports and Assigned Applications," serves as a quick reference guide for ports that are commonly used in today's diverse network environment.
• 
  Appendix B, "Ten Places for More Information," provides links to external locations on the Internet to help you further your knowledge on the topics discussed in this work.