The Need For Data Transport Optimization

Written by: Craig Gust is president, CEO, and founder of NetEx

Data transport optimization is software technology that enhances the delivery of data over IP-based networks for business continuity and disaster recovery requirements. The technology overcomes the bandwidth limitations and provides quick recovery times regardless of whether the system is operating over dedicated circuits, the Internet, or on cloud storage sites. Customers often struggle with the tradeoff between high costs for more bandwidth or extended Recovery recovery time objectives (RTO) for restoring files after a system or local storage failure. The appealing value proposition of business continuity solutions rapidly disappears if customers can’t recover their data on a timely basis during a disaster recovery operation. Data transport optimization is a simple and highly effective solution that helps mitigate network issues that hinder applications designed for replicating and recovering data from cloud storage repositories and major data centers.

Remote replication and business continuity and disaster recovery solutions will only become more important as the network infrastructures change from traditional data centers to cloud storage repositories. When you think about it, the right data will have to be at the right location at the right time. Data transport optimization based upon software will be important because of the flexible deployment possibilities. Hardware WAN optimization solutions may still be offered but with the huge growth of VMware, a software-only configuration, enabling customers to quickly deploy the transport optimization software into their existing VMware infrastructures is also a must. New patent-pending technology aimed to work with virtualization software can accelerate and optimize industry-leading data replication and file transfer applications by aggregating multiple data replication applications over a shared connection while mitigating the inherent network latency and network disruption for long-distance remote TCP data transmissions. The software supports long distance data transfers up to 800 Mb/s, the highest scaling and highest performance of any data transport optimization solution on the market. Transfer speed is optimized for the full range of data management applications, including backup and remote replication and backup/recovery applications.

Performance issues are very common when moving data over wide area networks. Some of these issues include; bandwidth restrictions, latency due to distance and/or router hop counts, packet loss and network errors. Without the wholesale replacement of common Ethernet and TCP/IP networks a viable option and inherent performance bottlenecks threatening to bring WAN-based applications to a crawl, high-speed data transport optimization software is increasingly the most attractive method to increase data transmission volumes and delivery times. Recovery on Demand is a key feature offered by this new technology as it helps to speed data recovery operations from a data center or cloud storage site when data is lost or a disaster hits.

The value propositions of data transfer acceleration technologies are numerous. Supporting file transfer requirements over a single IP network means less cost, complexity and maintenance. Utilizing existing Ethernet/IP infrastructures helps leverage current investment, reducing the need for additional capital expenditures. Eliminating inefficiencies of the TCP transport improves performance and provides better utilization of bandwidth resources. Taken all together, data transport optimization software enables more data being sent over the same — or smaller — links, lowering the cost of bandwidth, equipment, and support operations.

Data transport optimization tools just don’t benefit the exchange of information across the wide area network. They can also assist enterprises utilize acceleration technology to enhance data replication and file transfer applications for a full range of data management applications, including backup and remote replication, and business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR).

Using a high-speed data transport software solution to overcome latencies inherent in traditional network architectures is just the tip of the iceberg for what the technology can be utilized going into the future. Emerging infrastructures, such as cloud storage and virtual machine environments, may minimize shortcomings associated with traditional platforms but still suffer bandwidth limitations in recovery. Transport optimization technologies are complementary to such offerings and provide improved performance while lowering total solution costs. As data delivery needs continue, transport acceleration technology provides an attractive method of sending more data at faster speeds than basic IP WANs.

Craig Gust is president, CEO, and founder of NetEx, which spun off from StorageTek (now SUN Microsystems) in March 1999. Prior to that, Gust was VP of worldwide network sales and service support at StorageTek. He also served in a number of management positions with Network Systems Corporation (NSC) including VP of North American sales support, GM of Canada operations, GM of Pan American region, GM of western region U.S. sales and director of marketing.