Dimension Data intros WAN optimization across global cloud

USA: Dimension Data, the $5.8 billion global ICT solutions and services provider, has introduced WAN optimization capabilities to its cloud globally.

By deploying WAN optimization technology in Dimension Data's Managed Cloud Platform (MCP) cloud data centers, Dimension Data clients are reporting a significant increase in application performance across the entire cloud.

Organizations using the cloud for database replication, file synchronization, and backup and disaster recovery between data centers have realized the greatest improvement in performance. An enhanced capability, WAN optimization is provided as part of the company's standard public cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering at no additional charge.

Dimension Data has implemented WAN optimization controller (WOC) appliances in its MCPs in San Jose, Calif. and Ashburn, Va., U.S.; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Sydney, Australia; and Johannesburg, South Africa. Traffic moving between these sites is encrypted over a VPN tunnel and optimized for delivery using deduplication and application-specific protocol optimization.

"With the addition of WAN optimization capabilities, we are helping our clients overcome the latency and bandwidth constraints often associated with public cloud services," said Steve Nola , CEO of Dimension Data's Cloud Solutions Business Unit. "No other cloud provider offers a core that is optimized for acceleration. By providing optimal network and cloud performance, in addition to flexibility and ease of use, we provide organizations the ability to speed the process of migrating their data and applications to the cloud."

"WAN optimization has had a dramatic impact on application performance in the enterprise," said Jim Metzler , founder and VP of IT consulting company, Ashton, Metzler & Associates. "By enabling WAN optimization between its cloud data centers, Dimension Data is offering organizations the ability to increase the performance of key data center applications, such as database replication and backup and recovery, while bringing WAN optimization into the public cloud as a standard feature."

Additionally, Dimension Data has been working on several other enhancements to increase the overall performance and reliability of its cloud offering. In December, Dimension Data introduced two new capabilities:

Server Anti-Affinity: Increases resiliency by allowing end users to configure a rule ensuring two cloud servers do not reside on the same physical host. If a physical host fails, only one of the two cloud servers will be affected, increasing resiliency.

Global Import and Export: Allows users to import and export images from the cloud to their own data center or between MCPs. This makes it easy to move workloads between different cloud data centers through the Web-based administrative user interface or the REST-based API.