CIOs view WAN as strategic platform 
ConvergenceAsia staff
04/08/2009

In a panel discussion about optimising wide-area network (WAN) investments to support global operations, senior IT executives confirmed that there is growing interest from C-level executives regarding the health of the WAN today and the options for managing this important resource in the future.

The panel, recently hosted in San Jose, California by NTT America, a wholly-owned US subsidiary of NTT Communications, and Riverbed Technology, the IT infrastructure performance company for networks, applications and storage, agreed that, as companies with a global footprint look to improve and expand their operations, increasing importance is placed on WAN performance and optimisation. C-level executives are viewing the WAN as a strategic platform from which new business processes and strategies can be generated.

Comprised of senior executives in the high-technology, financial and manufacturing industries, the panel also discussed how key business developments, such as global collaboration and real-time transaction processing, have elevated the importance of the WAN as it both supports current operations and enables new, more innovative and cost-effective revenue-generating business practices.

Advanced technologies and applications require a strong network to support a successful global business. WAN optimisation is a critical factor in enabling speed, increased employee productivity and business continuity and agility, said Randy Schirman, vice president of Service Provider Sales at Riverbed. “We’re hearing across the board from CIOs of global organisations that WAN optimisation is being recognised as adding value at the strategic, operational, financial and technical level.”

NTT America and Riverbed have worked closely to bring WAN optimisation to global organisations as a managed service. NTT America's Managed WPA (WAN Performance Accelerator) service, based on Riverbed WAN optimisation, provides multi-national and regional businesses with LAN-like access to data and applications for users in branch offices, regardless of their location. The service performance enables cost savings through reductions in both opex and capex, as enterprises are able to optimise their bandwidth usage while consolidating their IT infrastructure and reducing IT complexity and overhead.

In addition, the managed service acceleration helps ensure business continuity through improved backup and replication processes, and it also improves staff productivity and real-time collaboration.

“Our customers view global networks as critical infrastructure in their corporate technology arsenal,” said Stephen Bloom, Vice President of Business Development for NTT America. “Optimising WAN investments creates a strategic platform for our customers to support their operations in Asia Pacific and beyond, and we provide them with the network, data centre, and IP backbone services they need to grow and efficiently run their business.”

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