Packeteer has started marketing managed WAN optimization products to carriers running MPLS networks.
The initiative is being led by Packeteer’s operations in Europe, where MPLS is more mature compared to the North American market. The company’s plan is to sell more to carriers, which in turn can target the kind of customer that lacks the technical expertise to run Packeteer’s equipment in-house.
The WAN application optimization market has been Packeteer’s bread and butter since its foundation, but now some of the big network operators are unveiling prioritization (optimization) services, for which they are charging significant amounts. BT Infonet, for example, launched its Application Centric VPN in April, which offers optimization of application performance through control over class of service and service level parameters such as delay, jitter and packet loss for all applications. AC VPN also offers built-in compression to lower overall network costs.
Last month, France Telecom SA’s Equant subsidiary responded with Application SLAs, and it is Packeteer’s contention that others will follow suit in the coming months. Sources close to Equant say App SLAs are in reality a repackaging of what the company already offered as part of a professional services engagement, but the carrier moved to productize it in response to BT Infonet’s move.
While all these developments are underway on the carrier side, the WAN optimization market seen much M&A activity. Juniper bought Peribit and RedLine; Cisco bought FineGround; and Citrix bought NetScaler. In addition, Cisco announced Application-Oriented Networking (AON).
Juniper has traditionally been stronger in the carrier space than in the enterprise space, and, Peribit, Packeteer’s direct competitor in L2-3 optimization, was seen at the time to be strengthening its offerings to corporate customers. If Packeteer’s reading of the market proves correct, more of the Peribit and RedLine technology will be launched into the service provider market.
Cisco, by contrast, has always been strongest in the enterprise space and has long harbored ambitions to beef up its carrier business. The FineGround technology, together with AON, should now enable Cisco to target the service providers as well as corporate customers.
