Cloud computing simplifies enterprise application delivery with resource flexibility, investment-less OPEX models, and no need for specialized in-house support resources.
The WAN's traffic matrix becomes much more complicated
with cloud computing: Internet and MPLS must jointly deliver applications to
users, while performance and reliability remain absolute necessities for an
efficient business. As the core of this application delivery infrastructure, the
WAN must be viewed as a crucial business resource requiring full attention from
IT managers. WAN usage must be understood. WAN performance must be controlled,
optimized and continually aligned with business goals. WAN costs, including
bandwidth and deployment of new applications, must be controlled.
WAN
Governance, a method of IT management developed by Ipanema Technologies, enables
enterprises to manage their WANs as "cloud-ready networks" - able to understand,
control and optimize traffic between branch offices and public and private data
centers, with capabilities to automatically adapt to new traffic patterns.
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Today's enterprises of all sizes are faced with a tremendous challenge. Clearly, there are lots of reasons to move to cloud-based services for certain functions within the network. In fact, we've rapidly moved to so many functions as a service (no longer just Software as a Service - SaaS), that cloud services in general are referred to as XaaS (X could stand for a wide number of services.)
But corporate-based data centers are not going away, and many forms of "private" WAN transport will remain as well. So how do you ensure application performance, scalability, security, etc., in this complex environment.
That's where "WAN Governance" comes in. And this paper provides an excellent discussion of the challenges and proposed solutions.
Highly recommended.