SAN BRIDGES AND ISCSI

We often get asked what the difference is between NAS and SAN and how iSCSI protocals can improve access and throughput. Therefore, let’s first review a few basics about NAS (Network Attached Storage) and SAN (Storage Area Networks).

Which Network is Right For Your Organization?

NAS or Network Attached Storage is a file-level (as opposed to block-level storage) computer data storage server. It is connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. NAS is specialized for serving files either by its hardware, software, or configuration.

SAN or Storage Area Network is a dedicated, high-speed network that provides access to block-level storage. SANs were adopted to improve application availability and performance by segregating storage traffic from the rest of the LAN. SANs are primarily used to access storage devices, such as disk arrays and tape libraries from servers. Devices appear to the operating system as direct-attached storage. SAN typically is a dedicated network of storage devices not accessible through local area networks (LAN).

iSCSI or Internet Small Computer System Interface is a block protocol for storage networking. It runs the very common SCSI storage protocol across a network connection which is usually Ethernet. iSCSI, like Fibre Channel, can be used to create a Storage Area Network (SAN). iSCSI traffic can be run over a shared network or a dedicated storage network.

Block Storage, sometimes referred to as block-level storage, is a technology that is used to store data files on Storage Area Networks (SANs) or cloud-based storage environments. Block storage breaks up data into blocks and then stores those blocks as separate pieces, each with a unique identifier.

File Storage – also called file-level or file-based storage – is a hierarchical storage methodology used to organize and store data on a computer hard drive or on network-attached storage (NAS) device.

Solutions That Really Work

So what does this all mean to you and your SAN network? How can you speed up your block level data transfers over the WAN and mitigate latency regardless of distance?

Introducing the WANrockIT portfolio of products. Quick and easy to install.

• Up to 200X Data Acceleration speeds – WANrockIT allows you to realise upto 98% of your available bandwidth.
• Mitigate Latency – regardless of distance and size or type of data, WANrockIT can mitigate latency performance issues.
• Automated AI Technology – patented and Gartner recognised next generation technology providing dramatic data acceleration.
• Secure Model – WANrockIT does not touch your data, maintaining all your security protocols.
• Simple Model – no installation costs, no on-going maintenance.
• Dramatic ROI – low investment for significant ROI.
• SAN Bridges and iSCSI – Improve Your Throughput.

Reap the benefits transporting SAN block level protocols across the WAN with leading edge patented technology so 90% of your potential WAN capacity can be realized. IP based data and protocols technology can accelerate data up to 100X without touching or manipulating the data enabling rich media formats and encrypted data to be accelerated without loss in performance.

Bridgeworks

WANrockIT Appliances are recognized as the highest performing WAN Data Acceleration solutions for SAN protocols available – out performing all of our competitors with capabilities of up to 40Gb/s. As a result, they are simple and quick to install. Bridgeworks’ WANrockIT’s appliances fit seamlessly across the range from the SME to the very largest of enterprises. With the ability for different models to communicate with each other, it is now possible to create the most cost effective WAN Data Acceleration solution that meets your needs of transferring SAN protocols between Data Centers, remote locations and the Cloud.

Recognized by Gartner, Bridgeworks’ WANrockIT patented technology approaches WAN performance
inhibitors in a way that uses the safe, tradition TCP/IP protocol. We also combine deep learning AI managed mitigation techniques that can result in performance gains in excess of 200X or up to 98% of available bandwidth. This is applicable to all data types including encrypted, without changing or manipulating the data. WANrockIT optimizes the flow of data across the SAN and the WAN in real time, even if network conditions change. By incorporating a number of artificial intelligence (AI) engines that continuously manage, control and configure multiple aspects of the WANrockIT – your data flow operates optimally at all times without Administrator intervention.

WANROCKIT TECHNOLOGY

• Accelerating up to 40Gb data
• Up to 98% bandwidth utilization
• Accelerates Fibre Channel SAS and iSCSI protocols
• Mitigates the effect of latency and packet loss
• Converts from one protocol to another in flight without performance penalty

LEARN MORE: WANrockIT

So what’s all the hype about AI accelerating your data over the WAN? Artificial Intelligence and WAN Acceleration are actually a perfect marriage – and here’s why! Up until now, IT directors have been compressing data, increasing bandwidth, caching and duplicating to try and squeeze more data down their pipeline. But even best case scenarios, yielded minimal results.

A new patented AI technology has emerged that can accelerate your existing technologies and dramatically accelerates your WAN – Bridgeworks can help you boost your existing environment – rapidly moving your data across WAN’s regardless of distance, size or type of data. This simple, yet powerful management portal allows you to fine-tune your setup to your own specific requirements – and all managed (in real time) by patented AI Technology.

Rapid Data Transfer (USA) has partnered with Bridgeworks (EU) to provide our North America Clients with a unique solution to move large volumes of data across the WAN at record speeds. Bridgeworks has looked at the problem of data movement and come at it from an entirely new perspective. In mastering the rules of data movement over distance, Bridgeworks utilizes Artificial Intelligence to transfer significant volumes of business critical data in real time removing unacceptable time lags, that risk failure, delay or that may present major costs to your business. And they do it all without ever touching your data. You stay in complete control of your data from start to finish.

WAN ACCELERATION LIKE NO OTHER

Bridgeworks’ expertise in optimization of data performance stretches back over 35 years. Bridgeworks industry defining Data Acceleration technology is re-defining Wide Area Networks enabling organizations to reach transfer speeds up to 200x faster, whether in large volumes, encrypted or media files. Using Automated, Patented, AI technology – Bridgeworks dramatically alleviates the effects of latency and packet loss, meaning that your data can get to where it needs to be quicker while maximizing business performance with dramatic ROI.

OUR VISION

At RDT (Rapid Data Transfer) our goal is simple – to ensure your enterprise achieves liberation of your data from wherever it may be, to wherever it needs to go, when it needs to be there. The struggle to move data over distance has long been a battle being fought. With the data deluge that is upon us, this war is only set to continue unless the issue is flipped on its head and approached in a radically different manner. AI underpins all the patents from Bridgeworks by providing process intelligence, reduced latency and mitigate packet loss – all in real time w/o ever touching your data. The marriage of artificial intelligence with data migration has arrived. The result is jaw dropping WAN Acceleration never before seen.

Rapid Data Transfer or RDT, is a full-service data management company with specific expertise with WAN data acceleration, enterprise level data management, and storage solutions that deliver significant cost savings to clients throughout North America. We are your source for the world’s fastest and most reliable WAN Acceleration Technologies – Guaranteed to dramatically boost your WAN transfer rates regardless of distance, size or type of data.

Boost your environment and make the most of your IT investment.

Call (800) 278-3480 for a free, no obligation assessment.

So, what are the effects of latency on WAN speed and what are the typical values? What causes it and why is it important? Why does it differ from network to network? Let’s review the basics:

Latency is a measure of delay.  In a network, latency measures the time it takes for some data to get to its destination across the network.  It is usually measured as a round trip delay – the time taken for information to get to its destination and back again.   The round trip delay is an important measure because a computer that uses a TCP/IP network sends a limited amount of data to its destination and then waits for an acknowledgement to come back before sending any more.  Thus, the round trip delay has a key impact on the performance of the network. Additionally, latency is usually measured in milliseconds (ms). (read full article here).

Each hop (or jump) a packet takes from router to router across the WAN increases latency time. Storage delays can occur when a packet is stored or accessed resulting in a delay caused by intermediate devices like switches and bridges.

Many people have likely heard the term latency being used before but of misunderstand the true definition? In terms of network or WAN latency, this can be defined by the time it takes for a request to travel from the sender to the receiver and for the receiver to process that request. Again, the round trip time from the browser to the server. It is obviously desired for this time to remain as close to 0 as possible, however, there can be a few things at play preventing your website latency times to remain low.

Latency vs bandwidth vs throughput

Although latency, bandwidth, and throughput all work together hand-in-hand, they do have different meanings. It’s easier to visualize how each term works when referencing it to a pipe:

• Bandwidth determines how narrow or wide a pipe is. The narrower it is, the less data is able to be pushed through it at once and vice-versa.
• Latency determines how fast the contents within a pipe can be transferred from the client to the server and back.
• Throughput is the amount of data which can be transferred over a given time period.

If the latency in a pipe is low and the bandwidth is also low, that means that the throughput will be inherently low. However, if the latency is low and the bandwidth is high that will allow for greater throughput and a more efficient connection. Ultimately, latency creates bottlenecks within the network thus reducing the amount of data which can be transferred over a period of time. (read more about WAN latency here).

Causes of network latency

The effects of latency on WAN speed can be crippling. The question of what is latency has been answered, now where does latency come from? There are 4 main causes that can affect network latency times. These include the following:

• Transmission mediums such as WAN or fiber optic cables all have limitations and can affect latency simply due to their nature.
• Propagation is the amount of time it takes for a packet to travel from one source to another (at the speed of light).
• Routers take time to analyze the header information of a packet as well as, in some cases, add additional information. Each hop a packet takes from router to router increases the latency time.
• Storage delays can occur when a packet is stored or accessed resulting in a delay caused by intermediate devices like switches and bridges.

Ways to reduce latency

Latency can be reduced using a few different techniques as described below. Reducing the amount of server latency will help load your web resources faster, thus improving the overall page load time for your visitors.

1. AI or Artificial Intelligence – Technologies that accelerate data transfers and eliminate data management challenges are known as ‘WAN acceleration’. Bridgeworks patented AI technologies accelerate your existing technologies and dramatically accelerates your WAN, dramatically improving data throughput by up to 98% of bandwidth – regardless of distance.  Artificial intelligence underpins the patented technology to provide process intelligence, reduced latency and mitigation of packet loss resulting in rocket speed transfers all being managed in real time by AI. (learn more about AI WAN Acceleration here) or call (800) 278-3480 to speak to a WAN acceleration specialist today.
2. HTTP/2: The use of the ever prevalent HTTP/2 is another great way to help minimize latency. HTTP/2 helps reduce server latency by minimizing the number of round trips from the sender to the receiver and with parallelized transfers. KeyCDN proudly offers HTTP/2 support to customers across all of our edge servers.
3. Fewer external HTTP requests: Reducing the number of HTTP requests not only applies to images but also for other external resources such as CSS or JS files. If you are referencing information from a server other than your own, you are making an external HTTP request which can greatly increase website latency based on the speed and quality of the third party server.
4. Using a CDN: Using a CDN helps bring resources closer to the user by caching them in multiple locations around the world. Once those resources are cached, a user’s request only needs to travel to the closest Point of Presence to retrieve that data instead of going back to the origin server each time.
5. Using prefetching methods: Prefetching web resources doesn’t necessarily reduce the amount of latency per se however it improves your website’s perceived performance. With prefetching implemented, latency intensive processes take place in the background when the user is browser a particular page. Therefore, when they click on a subsequent page, jobs such as DNS lookups have already taken place, thus loading the page faster.
6. Browser caching: Another type of caching that can be used to reduce latency is browser caching. Browsers will cache certain resources of a website locally in order to help improve latency times and decrease the number of requests back to the server. Read more about browsing caching and the various directives that exist in our Cache-Control article.

Other types of latency

Latency occurs in many various environments including audio, networks, operations, etc. The effects of latency on WAN speed can be seen anywhere data flows. The following describes two additional scenarios where latency is also prevalent.

Fibre optic latency

Latency in the case of data transfer through fibre optic cables can’t be fully explained without first discussing the speed of light and how it relates to latency. Based on the speed of light alone (299,792,458 meters/second), there is a latency of 3.33 microseconds (0.000001 of a second) for every kilometer of path covered. Light travels slower in a cable which means the latency of light traveling in a fibre optic cable is around 4.9 microseconds per kilometer.

Based on how far a packet must travel, the amount of latency can quickly add up. Cable imperfections can also degrade the connection and increase the amount of latency incurred by a fibre optic cable.

Audio latency

This form of latency is the time difference between a sound being created and heard. The speed of sound plays a role in this form of latency which can vary based on the environment it travels through e.g solids vs liquids. In technology, audio latency can occur from various sources including analog to digital conversion, signal processing, hardware / software used, etc.

How to measure network latency?

Network latency can be tested using either Ping, Traceroute, or MTR (essentially a combination of Ping and Traceroute). Each of these tools is able to determine specific latency times, with MTR being the most detailed.

The use of MTR allows a user to generate a report that will list each hop in a network that was required for a packet to travel from point A to point B. The report will include details such as Loss%, Average latency, etc. See our traceroute command article to learn more about MTR and traceroute.

Essentially, latency is measured using one of two methods:

1. Round trip time (RTT)
2. Time to first byte (TTFB)

The round trip time can be measured using the methods above and involves measuring the amount of time it takes between when a client sends a request to the server and when it gets it back. On the other hand, the TTFB measure the amount of time it takes between when a client sends a request to a server and when it receives its first byte of data. You can use our performance test tool to measure the TTFB of any asset across our network of 16 test locations.

What are typical values for latency?

Typical, approximate, values for latency that you might experience include:

• 800ms for satellite
• 120ms for 3G cellular data
• 60ms for 4G cellular data which is often used for 4G WAN and internet connections
• 20ms for an mpls network such as BT IP Connect, when using Class of Service to prioritise traffic
• 10ms for a modern Carrier Ethernet network such as BT Ethernet Connect or BT Wholesale Ethernet in the UK

Why is latency important?

People often assume that high performance comes from high bandwidth, but that’s not a full picture.  

• The bandwidth of a network or a network circuit refers to its capacity to carry traffic. It is measured in bit per second; commonly Megabits per second (Mbps).
• A higher bandwidth means that more traffic can be carried; for example, more simultaneous conversations.   It does not imply how fast that communication will take place (although if you attempt to put more traffic over a network than the available bandwidth, you’ll get packets of data being discarded and re-transmitted later, which will degrade your performance).

Latency, on the other hand, refers to the length of time it takes for  the data that you feed into one end of your network to emerge at the other end.  Actually, we usually measure the round trip time; for data to get to one end, and back again. 

Why is it important to count the time in both directions? 

Well, as we’ll see below, TCP sends acknowledgement bits back to the sender,  and it turns out, that this is critical.

• It’s fairly intuitive that a bigger delay means a slower connection.  
• However, due to the nature of TCP/IP (the most widely used networking protocol), latency has a more complex and far reaching impact on performance:  latency drives throughput.

Latency drives throughput

A network typically carries multiple simultaneous conversations.  

• Bandwidth limits the number of those conversations that can be supported.
• Latency drives the responsiveness of the network – how fast each conversation can be had.  
• For TCP/IP networks, latency also drives the maximum throughput of a conversation (how much data can be transmitted by each conversation in a given time). 

Latency can become a particular problem for throughput because of the way TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) works. 

TCP is concerned with making sure all of the packets of your data get to their destination safely, and in the correct order.   It requires that only a certain amount of data is transmitted before waiting for an acknowledgement. 

Imagine a network path is a long pipe filling a bucket with water.  TCP requires that once the bucket is full, the sender has to wait for an acknowledgement to come back along the pipe before any more water can be sent.

In real life, this bucket is usually 64KB in size.  That’s 65535 (ie 2^16) x 8 = 524,280 bits.   It’s called the TCP Window.

Let’s imagine a scenario in which it takes half a second for water to get down the pipe, and another half a second for the acknowledgement to come back … a latency of 1 second.

In this scenario the TCP protocol would prevent you from sending any more than 524,280 bits in any one second period.  The most you could possibly get down this pipe is 524,280 bit per second (bps) – otherwise expressed as half a megabit per second.

Notice that (barring other issues that may slow things down) the only thing driving this is latency.

Max throughput can never be more than the bucket size divided by the latency. 

So how does latency impact throughput in real life?

Clearly,  if you have latency-sensitive applications then you need to be mindful of the latency of your network.  Look out for situations where there might be unexpectedly excessive latency that will impact throughput.  For example,  international circuits.  

Another interesting case is with 4G Cellular WAN, where one uses the 4G network to create a reliable, high speed connection to your corporate network, or to the internet.  This involves the use of multiple SIMs that are often bonded together into a single, highly reliable connection.   In this case, the latency of the bonded connection tends towards the greatest latency of all the individual connections.    

If you consider the difference between 3G and 4G in the list above,  you’ll see that including 3G connections can have a big impact on the overall latency.  Read more about 4G WAN in our Guide to 4G WAN.

Remember, though, that latency is not the only cause of poor application performance.  When we researched the root cause of performance issues in our customers’ networks, we found that only 30% were caused by the network.  The other 70% were caused by issues with the application, database or infrastructure.  To get to the bottom of such problems, you often need an Application Performance Audit, or perhaps to set up Critical Path Monitoring on your IT estate.  Generally, you’ll track latency and other performance-impacting indicators using a Network and Application monitoring toolset. See this post for more on building the best managed network provider monitoring.

Solving the effects of latency on WAN speed

Here at Rapid Data Transfer, we completely sidestep the latency issue – the effects of latency on WAN speed – by utilizing patented AI technology to provide process intelligence. Simply put, we reduce latency and mitigation of packet loss resulting in rocket speed transfers across the WAN. Call for a free demo today and see how you can maximize throughput up to 98% of bandwidth. CALL (800) 278-3480 to speak to a Data Acceleration specialist.

WAN Optimization Basics

Following these easy steps can dramatically speed up your WAN transfers and keep you from losing your hair prematurely. Solving slow WAN speed(s) – the dilemma. But first, let’s review a few basic – WANs are simply networks that span large geographical locations. Latency, packet loss and bandwidth limitations (to name a few) have traditionally been determining factors for how much and how fast data can be moved down a pipe. WAN connections, as they get further from the source, introduce Latency.

It doesn’t matter how much bandwidth is available. As distance increases so does the chances for packet loss, which requires a retransmission. Packet loss is almost always caused by congestion-based dropping of packets by routers (or other forwarding device) along the path between locations.  Bandwidth is often mistaken for internet speed when it’s actually the volume of information that can be sent over a connection in a measured amount of time – calculated in megabits per second (Mbps). I think we can all agree that regardless of how big your pipe is, maximizing bandwidth to 100% capacity is literally a pipedream.

Solving The WAN Speed Bottleneck

There are literally hundreds of web articles that will claim to help you solve your WAN speed issues. Many of these articles are written with good intentions. But lets be honest, whoever wrote the article has no idea what your specific WAN speed issues are. It would be like throwing a dart at a dartboard 100 yards away while blindfolded. What you need are specific answers to solve your specific dilemmas.

Before I reveal the specific steps you can employ to speed up your WAN issues, let’s first discuss the 10 most common techniques (according to top tech guru’s). Some of these may give you temporary relief, so it’s at least worth mentioning before we delve deeper.

1. Identify your biggest sources of traffic.

2. Create policies that can eliminate traffic.

3. Eliminate chatterbox apps and unnecessary ports and protocols.

4. Prioritize traffic.

5. Consider outsourced spam-filtering services and heavy-use applications.

6. Choose security and backup solutions with WAN optimization in mind.

7. Consider cache servers and thin computing.

8. Separate network resources.

9. Consider WAN acceleration hardware.

10. Add more bandwidth.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: LINK

Problem Specific Solutions to your WAN Speed Dilemma

Solving slow WAN speed(s) – Utilizing old and outdated methods to achieve maximum WAN data throughput is like running a marathon barefoot or trying to dig a tunnel with a shovel. Let’s be honest, you’re data transmission problems go way beyond what most experts can write about in a blog article. Adding more bandwidth when latency issues are what’s really crippling your transmissions would be a waste of time and money. Prioritizing traffic when you don’t have enough bandwidth to begin with, would be pointless. Trying to simultaneously incorporate all ten steps above would be mind numbing and require more money and effort than most IT department heads could afford. Am I right? You know I’m right! So how do we maximize your WAN data transfers without breaking the piggy bank AND keep you sane at the same time?

Artificial Intelligence

Your WAN data transfer issues are too specific to try and manage arbitrarily by implementing a few basic protocols. You need problem specific answers, and you need them in real time. Introducing ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – with 29 patents that guarantee real time management of your data over long distances with record speed. RDT & Bridgeworks address and resolve many key issues faced by companies current infrastructure. Remove unacceptable time lags that risk failure, delay or presents major costs to your business – boost your environment and make the most of your IT investment.

Contact us today for a free demo and get on the path to Rapid Data Transfer – regardless of file size or transfer distance. Call (800) 278-3480.

Virtual WAN Optimization

Simple and quick to install, Bridgeworks’ PORTrockIT Virtual Appliance fits seamlessly across the range from the SME to the very largest of enterprises. With the ability of all the different models to communicate with each other, it is possible to create the most cost effective WAN Data Acceleration solution that meets your needs between Data Centers, remote locations and the Cloud. Leading WAN Optimization Performance and Virtualization Flexibility – » Learn More

Physical WAN Optimization Appliances

Recognized by Gartner, Bridgeworks PORTrockIT patented technology approaches WAN performance
inhibitors in a way that uses the safe, tradition TCP/IP protocol combined with deep learning AI managed
mitigation techniques that can result in performance gain in excess of 200 X or up to 98% of available
bandwidth. This is applicable to all data types including encrypted, without changing or manipulating the data. World’s Fastest and Most Flexible WAN Acceleration Appliances – Rackmount 1U & 2U Configurations
» Learn More

The Solution to Your WAN Speed Issues

CLOUD – Achieve over 10x improvement on performance of data movement to AND from the cloud irrespective of compression or encrypted data formats. Simply choose your technology and see the difference. Organizations are finding transfer speeds to Cloud restrictive and costs spiraling. RDT / Bridgeworks can provide massive data transfer speeds on any type of data both to and from the Cloud.

DATA – Next generation technology accelerates data transfer speeds up to 200x faster than traditional WAN Optimization technologies. The constraint is no longer the size of the pipe, after all, 1Gb, 10Gb and multiple 10Gb pipes are becoming the norm. The challenge now is making sure you are utilizing the full extent of the bandwidth available and capitalizing on the capability it brings.

APPLICATION – Bridgeworks PORTrockIT solutions accelerates performance for technologies like NetApp, Veritas, Datacore and Veeam with an average of 10x performance improvement for encrypted data, packet loss, congestion and acceleration. Bridgeworks WAN solutions help move data more rapidly across the worlds WAN’s. Being able to move data rapidly across the world’s WAN’s is critical, often we don’t have access to the underlying protocol, nevertheless tremendous acceleration is still achieved. By creating perfect networks on either side of the WAN, Bridgeworks technologies takes care of the data movement managing congestion and packet loss for optimum application performance and throughput.

STORAGE – The value of data to businesses has never been higher. The challenge of ever-growing volumes of data and how to capture, analyse and employ to and from multiple off-site backup locations at speed is critical. With the capability to accelerate data transfer up to 200x faster and provide 50x data recovery, Bridgeworks industry leading and award winning solutions can accelerate your storage strategies, reducing data back-up windows and time to access and utilise data.

Ready to start solving slow WAN speed(s) – CALL (800) 278-3480 Today!

Network latency is the time it takes for data or a request to go from the source to the destination. Solving network latency is critical to business success. Latency in networks is measured in milliseconds. The closer your latency is to zero, the better.

Remember the most common signs of high latency include:

• Data taking a long time to send, as in an email with a large attachment
• Slow speeds accessing servers or web-based applications
• Websites do not load, time-out or very slow

Determining what your network latency is and working to improve it so network processes run faster is important for both business efficacy, as well as peace of mind.

Solving Network Latency with AI –

The long-standing challenge when transmitting volumes of data across wide area networks has been latency – The Performance Killer.  There is no way to eliminate latency, it’s a given.  But now there is a way to change the game. The most difficult movements of data to accelerate is a single stream. This is why we chose to show it in the example below.  It demonstrates our capabilities and the opportunities this opens up, bringing efficiency and value to your business.

Latency Demo –

Our demo begins within the data center leaving fiber channel data between a Dell PowerEdge server and IBM LTO 3 Tape Drive over a 1GB pipe. All is as you would expect with data moving around 95 MB a second. We now simulate about 10 milliseconds of latency as we move outside the data center. We see the tremendous slowdown in performance. At 20ms, further degradation and finally at 40ms of latency (that’s halfway across the US – or between London and Frankfurt) we are below 10 MB per second. The throughput and performance has dropped through the floor.

Turning on WANrockIT at the 40ms of latency mark, using its intelligence… it self-learns, self-monitors and self-manages the environment making all the calculations to arrive at optimum performance. And should the network conditions change, such as increased latency, it will react and adjust accordingly. Unlike traditional optimization, WANrockIT does not require to store anything, nor does it need vast abouts the computing power or memory.  The compressed and encrypted data – now pass throughs – we accelerate EVERYTHING!

Simple, yet highly effective – WANrockIT has immediate impact on performance returning data transfer speeds to close to 100 MB a second. Magic? Or just turning the equation on its head?

Real Life Latency Issues –

Now to real life – CVS Health had issues with regards to performance across 86 ms of latency or in mileage terms – 2800 miles.  Using WANrockIT, that 50 GB of incremental backup dropped from 12 hours to just 45 minutes – allowing them to do full nightly backups of 430 GB.  Installed in less than 10 minutes, their return on investment (met within days), no longer was that business restricted by distance or the speed of light.

Don’t think this is all we do.  We can move ALL your data down the same pipe, at the same time.  If it’s moving data to the cloud, we have that cup of tea.  For large volumes of data, be it data migration or consolidation, replication, back-up, archiving, or storage – in fact any form of data movement where you need to move volumes at speed, we are the go-to-guys.  It is simple, in 10 minutes you can be up and running. And your CEO I will be happy too, we won’t wreck his budget. Curbing the effects of latency – WANrockIT changes the latency equation. The speed of light governs your bandwidth. WANrockIT insures you are squeezing the most from your pipe – maximizing performance with more than 95% throughput, taking away limitations that have been in place for too many years.

Bridgeworks PORTrockIT: Link

Bridgeworks WANrockIT Physical: Link

CALL the RAPID DATA TRANSFER Guru’s and let us help you solve your WAN Transfer issues:

Optimizing WAN throughput is a major focus of government and corporate IT departments. Latency, packet loss and bandwidth limitations (to name a few) have traditionally been determining factors for how much and how fast data can be moved down a pipe. That is no longer the case. Accelerating data transfers for long distance WANs is now a reality.

Acceleration Solutions –

George Crump explains in a recent article: “The four walls of the data center no longer confine users, applications, and data.” – Organizations are multi-site, and users want to work from anywhere. Making ‘work from anywhere’ a reality still requires data and data still has gravity. Data has to move to the organization’s various offices and into the cloud. Data movement requires WAN bandwidth, and while bandwidth speeds have increased, the speed of light has not, latency as well as packet loss, are still critical factors in WAN performance.

Deduplication is not WAN Optimization – Most WAN optimization solutions leverage deduplication and compression to improve WAN performance. The problem with counting on data efficiency technologies to improve WAN performance is that they do not improve WAN performance; they improve data efficiency. Moving less data is not the same as moving data more efficiently, and of course, data efficiency technologies require redundant data to work. Data efficient WAN solutions do little if anything to optimize the on-the-wire performance of data transfers.

Fixing the WAN
WAN connections, as they get further from the source, introduce latency. It doesn’t matter how much
bandwidth is available, as distance increases so does the chances for packet loss, which requires a
retransmission. The key to getting the most out of the WAN is to work around both of these issues.
The first step is to increase the parallelism, which means sending more data over the network at the
same time from different sources. An efficient WAN optimization solution will increase parallelism even
from a single workload. The second step is to set transfer packets size to reducing the frequency of
packet retransmission. The problem with optimizing packets is that the “right” packet size constantly
changes on a WAN.

The Fix –

Introducing Bridgeworks – True WAN Optimization
Bridgeworks’ core technology enables organizations to achieve almost maximum bandwidth utilization
despite any potential latency. They accomplish this by creating a high level of parallelism and by
optimizing packet size for the given state of the WAN. The solutions use an artificial intelligence engine
to analyze the condition of the WAN connection continuously to determine the optimal packet size
along with the level of parallelism so the minimum number of packets needs retransmission but at the
same time maximizing the data throughput.
The Artificial Intelligence is self-learning, managing and configuring. IT doesn’t have to make any
changes to existing applications or workflows nor do they have to install agents. The Bridgeworks
solutions do not touch any data, and they optimize any data type; deduplicated, encrypted or
compressed.

https://youtu.be/93BFxa9Hs7Q

Bridgeworks solves the WAN problem so differently it may be time for a new category, instead of
WAN optimization, Bridgeworks’ delivers the solution for accelerating data transfers for long distance WANs in real time.

Link: ACCELERATING DATA TRANSFERS FOR LONG DISTANCE WAN(S)

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WANs are simply networks that span large geographical locations. For example, corporations use these types of networks to transfer large amounts of information from office to office, between staff, clients, and to work with suppliers in remote or distant locations. WAN Optimization Techniques include methods and protocols for increasing data transfer efficiency rates across these wide-area networks or WANs. The most common measures of TCP data-transfer efficiencies (or optimization) are throughput, bandwidth requirements, latency, protocol optimization, and congestion – as manifested in packet loss (commonly referred to as dropped packets). The WAN optimization market is currently a $1 billion industry, annually.

According to Wikipedia, several methods can be used to optimize WAN transfer speeds but are not commonly known. We discuss the most popular methods here –

TCP Data-Transfer Efficiencies Explained –

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) – AI underpins a new patented technology that combines efficiencies in process intelligence, reduce latency and mitigate packet loss – commonly referred to as Bridgework’s PORTrockIT.
• Latency optimization – Can include TCP refinements such as window-size scaling, selective acknowledgements, Layer 3 congestion control algorithms, and even co-location strategies in which the application is placed in near proximity to the endpoint to reduce latency. In some implementations, the local WAN optimizer will answer the requests of the client locally instead of forwarding the request to the remote server in order to leverage write-behind and read-ahead mechanisms to reduce WAN latency.
• Deduplication – Eliminates the transfer of redundant data across the WAN by sending references instead of the actual data. By working at the byte level, benefits are achieved across IP applications.
• Caching/proxy – Staging data in local caches; Relies on human behavior, accessing the same data over and over.
• Forward error correction – Mitigates packet loss by adding another loss-recovery packet for every “N” packets that are sent, and this would reduce the need for retransmissions in error-prone and congested WAN links.
• Compression – Relies on data patterns that can be represented more efficiently. Essentially compression techniques similar to ZIP, RAR, ARJ etc. are applied on-the-fly to data passing through hardware (or virtual machine) based WAN acceleration appliances.
• Protocol spoofing – Bundles multiple requests from chatty applications into one. May also include stream-lining protocols such as CIFS.
• Equalizing – Makes assumptions on what needs immediate priority based on the data usage. Usage examples for equalizing may include wide open unregulated Internet connections and clogged VPN tunnels.
• Connection limits – Prevents access gridlock in and to denial of service or to peer. Best suited for wide open Internet access links, can also be used links.
• Traffic shaping – Controls data flow for specific applications. Giving flexibility to network operators/network admins to decide which applications take precedence over the WAN. A common use case of traffic shaping would be to prevent one protocol or application from hogging or flooding a link over other protocols deemed more important by the business/administrator. Some WAN acceleration devices are able to traffic shape with granularity far beyond traditional network devices. Such as shaping traffic on a per user AND per application basis simultaneously.
• Simple rate limits – Prevents one user from getting more than a fixed amount of data. Best suited as a stop gap first effort for remediating a congested Internet connection or WAN link.

Why Is WAN Optimization So Important?

Globally, companies are facing increased pressure on their Wide Area Networks. From increased use of cloud computing, applications, and other network-wide technologies – these issues are real. These increases will continue to grow as demands from businesses for more data skyrocket. These increases (or demand) are making WAN optimization or efficiencies more important.

Slow networks are silent killers. Even simple actions such as employees accessing files, can become unacceptably slow and cripple productivity. If your network is dragging, its likely optimization protocols need to be employed.

Bridgeworks Has Removed The Bottleneck

Bridgeworks patented AI Technology addresses and resolves many key issues faced by companies current data infrastructure. By removing unacceptable time lags that risk failure, delay or presents major costs to your business – we can boost your environment and make the most of your IT investment.

Bridgeworks’ expertise in optimization of data performance stretches back over 35 years. Bridgeworks industry defining Data Acceleration Technology is re-defining Wide Area Networks enabling organizations to reach transfer speeds up to 200x faster, with large volumes, encrypted and/or media files. Using Automated, AI technology – Bridgeworks can dramatically alleviate the effects of latency and packet loss. Simply put – your data can now get to where it needs to go – quicker. We help maximize business data performance with dramatic ROI.

At RDT, our goal is simple – to ensure your enterprise achieves liberation of your data from wherever it may be, to wherever it needs to be, when it needs to be there. Put another way, there has been a war raging for a very long time. The struggle to move data over distance has long been a battle that has been fought in the IT trenches. With the data deluge that is now upon us, this war is only set to continue unless the issue is flipped on its head and approached in a radically different manner. Bridgeworks has removed these bottlenecks. At RDT, we can now help liberate your company from its data troubles by engineering a solution that’s right for your organization using this technology.

Because WAN Optimization Techniques Work – They Remove the Bottlenecks Your IT Department Encounter. Discuss your network issues today with a WAN Optimization expert and start utilizing your entire data pipe – (800) 278-3480.