WAN optimisation preferred over additional bandwidth 
ConvergenceAsia staff
14/07/2009

WAN optimisation solutions have rapidly moved from ‘hype' to ‘hero’ in the past year as these tools have become the preferred choice for companies in optimising bandwidth utilisation to support their regional expansion needs.

Frost & Sullivan industry manager Arun Chandrasekaran notes that network and application optimisation is an inherent issue even in more advanced Asian nations. “Even in countries where high bandwidth is cheaply and readily available, WAN optimisation technologies are able to solve the issue of application latency that adding more bandwidth will simply not do,” he says.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Asia Pacific WAN Optimisation Controller Market, finds that the market - covering 14 Asia-Pacific countries, including Japan - grossed an estimated US$246.8 million in 2008, growing 21 per cent year-on-year. Growth is expected to decline to 13.3 per cent in 2009 to close the year at revenues of US$279.6 million, before picking up again to grow 22.2 per cent in 2010.

Overall, a healthy CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 19 per cent is expected from 2009 to 2015, to reach a market size of US$831.6 million by end-2015.

Deployments have largely been limited to larger businesses with greater financial muscle given the perceived high cost of WAN optimisation technologies to budget-conscious SMEs (small and medium enterprises), more so in a recession-hit economy. Large enterprises accounted for 61.6 per cent (US$152 million) of the revenues in 2008 - a majority of these investments being at data centres and branch offices.

Chandrasekaran reasons that WAN optimisation is the ideal technology for [large] businesses with wide regional presence and multiple office locations, running a host of business applications that support a mobile workforce.

“As businesses expand beyond their home borders, corporate WANs are no longer limited to bandwidth issues at country-level, but at regional level as well. WAN acceleration solutions enable companies to efficiently cope with varying bandwidth speeds, providing equitable access across the entire corporate WAN, regardless of branch office location,” he explains.

The need to support enterprise applications, ensure delivery to remote endpoints and drive business synergies across the entire regional operations of an organisation have also led to the growing interest in WAN optimisation solutions, to reduce the dependency on costly bandwidth acquisitions, adds Chandrasekaran.

In 2008, Australia led as the biggest spender on WAN optimisation solutions accounting for 24 per cent (US$59.2 million) of the revenues, followed by Japan at 22.8 per cent (US$56.3 million), China at about 10.1 per cent (US$24.8 million), and India at 7.2 per cent (US$17.9 million).

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