If it fails, you need to know what are the implications to the business processes. So even if the network is not down, it might be effectively down [without the acceleration technology].

Remote office consolidation is a business problem that requires a holistic approach. To succeed, enterprises must choose solutions that address all data access needs of the remote office -- not just remote file access. And, once remote office data is centralized, you can't stop there. Companies need to think through how the additional data will impact their existing SAN, backup and disaster recovery, and bandwidth infrastructures in order to effectively manage the newly centralized data.

Encrypting browser traffic prevents WAN optimization controllers from performing their optimization functions. When selecting a WOC vendor, it is important to understand their strategy for dealing with encrypted traffic like SSL.

Customers look to application acceleration solutions as a way to maximize their data center investments and contain their infrastructure and operational costs. As these deployments become more mainstream, customers require solutions that remove the complexity from solving their application performance problems.

You basically had no reliable backup for five years, until Sarbanes-Oxley came along. The office manager has taken the backup tapes home and put them on the mantle.

This is a strong entry from F5, and it's a hot market, so other companies will move into this space.