Telecom providers in North America are providing services for both accelerating and monitoring application performance, typically by integrating different toolsets. For example, NTT America is providing acceleration services based on Riverbed's technology along with network and application performance monitoring capabilities from Fluke Networks. Similarly, Global Crossing also offers services built around Fluke's Virtual Performance Manager for the performance monitoring and WAN acceleration gear from Juniper Networks.
Telecom carriers have to step up to WAN optimization market competition
Telecom service providers aren't the only ones offering managed WAN optimization services. Competitors include systems integrators such as HP and IBM and virtual network operators VNOs such as Virtela Communications. Telecom carriers still have a lot of work to do if they want to take full advantage of these market opportunities. Many are still missing some key capabilities for managing performance over the WAN, such as end-user-experience monitoring. And even though service providers are starting to provide SLAs around application performance, many of them are still limiting their offerings to more network-centric SLAs, such as the ability to enforce basic QoS policies.
Service providers are in a good position to address some of the key pain points that enterprises are facing, but their ability to take advantage of these opportunities will depend on the role they decide to play in this market. Many of them still have to decide whether they are looking to be a true partner to enterprise customers to create a really innovative set of service offerings, or to be just another channel for WAN optimization vendors to sell more of their gear to the enterprise.
Bojan Simic is the founder and principal analyst at TRAC Research, a market research and analyst firm specializing in IT performance management
This article originally appeared on SearchTelecom.com