Remember when WANs were simply about linking far flung operations as quickly as possible in a secure manner? Not anymore. Now WAN technologies are expected to deliver the sort of management control more typically associated with Local Area Networks. With the market appearing receptive to more robust WAN solutions and tools, several vendors announced new offerings.
Among the solutions emerging are some addressing disaster recovery and network backup. Peribit Networks, a provider of WAN application delivery functionality, recently joined EMC's Network Attached Storage Partner Program so that users can deploy data replication and remote backups across WAN links. According to officials, users will be able select the time and frequency of backups and replications to ensure performance of high-priority applications.
For WAN management, PerformanceIT released version 3.1 of its ProIT 3.1 network management solution. Among the features of the solution are enhancements to the solution's SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) v2c support. Officials say the new version includes a graphical LAN/WAN linking tool that lets users connect physical locations onscreen and monitor WAN link status and performance.
Wireless has emerged as a key driver of WAN application growth. Survey data just released by In-Stat/MDR found that about one-fifth of the IT budgets of the nearly 1,000 responding firms were dedicated to wireless LAN and WAN equipment and services. Three-quarters of the responding organizations that currently have wireless WANs said their use of wireless data applications will increase.
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