Q&A with Replify CTO, Andrew Caruth.
Can you tell us a little about Replify’s heritage in WAN optimization?
Replify identified a gap in the market for providing purely software-based WAN optimization. The increasing trend of organisations embracing virtualisation led to the desire to have virtual appliances running on commodity hardware. It was this trend that lead to the development of Replify as the first purely software based but fully featured WAN optimization product and in fact we were one of the first to market with a Virtual WAN Acceleration solution in 2008.
What are the key capabilities of Replify’s solution?
Replify offers protocol optimisation for improving the user experience for a number of common services, including web site traffic, file server transfers and file shares. In addition to the protocol optimization, Replify can apply compression to all traffic. Finally, at the core of Replify’s Intelligent Caching Engine is a cross-protocol block cache. This allows traffic sent on one protocol, for example an email, to be accelerated when users view the same data via another protocol, for example a SharePoint site.
Why is WAN optimization a key component for SD-WAN platforms?
SD-WAN greatly reduces the complexity of deploying and maintaining WANs. It does not, however, remove some of the key issues that users face when working with software over wide-area networks. Modern web applications, while often efficient, still require large amounts of data to be moved over the WAN. The dependence on expensive MPLS networks that SD-WAN removes, increases the chance of organisations relying on less stable broadband links. WAN optimization provides the same benefits to SD-WAN users as traditional WAN users.
As a software only solution, what advantages does this bring Replify when it comes to integration with SD-WAN platforms?
With a software heritage, Replify’s WAN optimisation is an ideal fit for an SD-WAN environment. Replify specialises in providing a bespoke solution that can integrate tightly with an SD-WAN offering. With our years of experience, integrating the Replify solution is easier than ever, with flexible APIs for configuration and deployment, as well as the option for custom integration changes to support a deployment. The inherent cross-platform nature of Replify’s solution means it can deployed on a wide range of devices out-of-the-box.
Bandwidth costs seem to be coming down everywhere, so is there still a requirement for wan-op?
Replify reduces bandwidth usage. That helps when you are paying per-megabyte of data. Crucially, Replify also improves user experience. Where there are geographic barriers, or infrastructure challenges, Replify can provide a user experience that matches what would be expected of a much faster connection.
How does WAN-Op help with application performance, especially as more and more are now hosted in the Cloud?
Application performance, or rather the user’s expectation of the application, is transformed when using Replify WAN Optimisation. For some workloads, Replify can provide a near-instantaneous response to user’s requests to an application. This means fewer complaints from users of slow application performance and high productivity.
Replify’s portability means it can be quickly deployed in almost all cloud data centres to provide end users acceleration right to their cloud application.
Replify also have a range of mobile clients, including Windows and MacOS. How important is this last mile optimisation in the modern network?
While connections between branch offices and data centres can be upgraded, when workers are mobile their experience may be much reduced. Replify has always provided optimisation right to the end users device. This allows remote workers to obtain the same levels of experience when they are a out and about with a poor connection as they would in their local branch office. As well as Windows and MacOS we also have clients for Android and Ubuntu and other Debian based distros.
Does Replify have a flexible business model when it comes to licensing wan optimisation as a service?
The core of Replify’s ethos is striving for flexibility. This ranges from software that is easily integrated, configured and deployed to being flexible when it comes to licensing. As the market continues to move towards consuming Software as a s Service (SaaS), Replify have in turn developed flexible pricing models that work with our partners business models and go-to-market strategies.
Why Replify?
Replify produces a software-based WAN Optimization solution to help reduce bandwidth consumption and improve application performance. Founded in 2007, Replify was one of the first WAN Optimization companies to market with a software only virtual appliance solution in 2009.
Our many years of experience in WAN optimization and network topologies have gone into delivering the very best software-only solution on the market. Why not get in touch for more information?