Seminis so far has installed 14 Peribit SR-50 and SR-20 Sequence Reducer WAN optimization devices at its most bandwidth-challenged sites. These appliances prioritize traffic to ensure that the sites get enough bandwidth for Seminis' Citrix ICA proprietary applications and Windows SAP ERP apps. With the Peribit appliance's QoS (quality of service) technology, the Seminis IT department is no longer bombarded with user complaints. "They're not sitting for minutes anymore waiting for a transaction because someone is doing a large file copy," Ackerman says.
WAN optimization technology is nothing new, but the pressure on IT to control WAN costs has made the cheaper compression and QoS methods increasingly popular among all kinds of organizations. International Data Corp. projects that the WAN optimization management market will grow from $236 million to $427 million by 2008.
Not So Hot?
Seminis first tested compression more than a year ago. At the time, it was conducting feasibility tests of a "lukewarm" backup site for storing its multiple gigabytes of SAP ERP data, which was housed in IBM RS/6000 database servers at the company's data center in Oxnard. The test-bed sites were connected through a dedicated T1 pipe. Ackerman and the IT team quickly discovered that compressing the ERP data boosted performance of the traffic and applications over the T1, eliminating the need to buy a much pricier DS3 or other high-speed connection.
"We were trying to limit our expense in dedicated circuits for backup," Ackerman says. "It was certainly a fit for remote offices, especially in our international areas, where the cost of circuits is high."
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