Is Your Network Performing Optimally?
For the 21st century organisation, an optimally performing network is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. A poor performing network is a drain on company resources; it slows productivity, frustrates employees, saps IT support capabilities and negates technology investments. In essence, it ceases to support business and starts to impede it.
Many of today’s IT trends, such as consolidation, virtualisation, convergence, Web 2.0, globalisation, outsourcing, and mobility have significant impact on a user’s experience when connecting to business applications over the network, as a result of the different traffic patterns and flows they introduce. Many networks were simply not designed to carry these growing and changing traffic patterns and, in addition, many protocols used today are not designed to function over the WAN.
Performance Optimisation is the addition of technology to a network, in order to accelerate the end-users access to any given application. Combined with IT Service Management (ITSM), it helps reduces complexity and management costs, enhance system resilience and improve efficiency of your networking assets. Most importantly, its primary benefit is speed – delivering applications to users, irrespective of where the applications reside, and irrespective of where the users are connecting from, in the most efficient way possible. There are many benefits to optimising traffic on the network and the results can be astonishing. In addition, return on investment analysis generally reveals payback periods of approximately 12 months
Making Performance Optimisation Work for You
To get a network to perform at its peak requires complete, in-depth networking expertise, a comprehensive understanding of the underlying protocols and knowledge of the applications running over the network. Dimension Data has a long history of delivering sophisticated networking solutions with a focus on performance engineering, to ensure that clients get the maximum performance out of their networks and data centres.
Dimension Data’s Performance Optimisation solutions fall under the broad categories of WAN Optimisation and Application Acceleration (sometimes referred to as Application Delivery Optimisation).
Our Performance Optimisation services incorporate a Network Optimisation Assessment, Performance Optimisation Design and Architecture, as well as support and management services, including our support service, Uptime, and Dimension Data’s Managed Network Services. We recommend starting any performance improvement project with a Network Optimisation Assessment
Performance Optimisation Services:
Network Optimisation Assessment: This assessment is the prime starting point for effective Performance Optimisation as it delivers a performance baseline on the network and a detailed analysis of the traffic types, patterns and flows on the network. This information gives you the insight needed to understand the networks more intimately and highlights areas for performance improvement.
Performance Optimisation Solutions:
WAN Optimisation: Features compression, traffic management, content management, load balancing, data reduction and caching techniques, which improve link and bandwidth utilisation. This solution utilises WAN Optimisation Controllers (WOCs) which are installed on either end of the WAN link.
Application Delivery Networking Solutions:
Improves the performance of applications by addressing the shortcomings of protocols and adapting the way data is delivered. This solution utilises Application Delivery Controllers, which are installed into client data centres.
Cloud and Cloud Operations Solutions:
Our comprehensive suite of solutions help you plan, assemble and provision elastic cloud services enabling you to enjoy the benefits of cloud computing through a private or public infrastructure. Your business will enjoy unparallel advantages such as greater business agility, efficiency and optimised value.
Are you Thinking About Performance?
Dimension Data publishes a range of thought leadership pieces on Performance Optimisation trends, technologies and solutions and how best to ensure that your business is deriving the maximum benefits from them.
Recent thinking includes:
• Network Performance Frustration Research
• Convergence Drives Performance Six Feet Under
• Making the Case for Performance Optimisation
• Bandwidth Hungry Video
• Optimisation Drivers
• Part 1 – Stop Signs and Yields
• Part 2 – Network Optimisation
• Part 3 – Lay-byes and Fast Lanes
• Part 4 – Freedom of the Road
Dimension Data has deployed over 12,500 optimisation devices in the last three years and supports some of the most geographically widespread Performance Optimisation solutions in the world. To read more, please see our case studies online.