Aryaka Offers Up Google Apps, Office 365, AWS and More

Aryaka Offers Up Google Apps, Office 365, AWS and More

By Doug Barney

Aryaka is known for its WAN optimization as a service, as well as application delivery and networking also delivered as a service.

The company isn’t giving up this legacy, but is hoping to create another one with a move into major cloud services, including Office 365, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and one of the originators, Google Apps.

These tools are all offered under the auspices of the new Cloud Network as-a-Service which comes in public and private cloud forms.

And because Aryaka is a master of WAN optimization, the networks that provide them should be decidedly low-latency.

One analyst believes Aryaka is hitting the sweet spot. “Enterprises continue to increase their spending on both private and hybrid cloud infrastructure as-a-service in addition to continuing to increase their usage of software as-a-service offerings such as CRM, database and collaboration tools,” said Jim Davis, Senior Analyst, 451 Research. “We believe that the rapid increase in consumption of cloud infrastructure as-a-service solutions will drive demand for bandwidth services that can connect branch offices and mobile workers under an ever-changing array of use cases.”

The key advantage of Aryaka’s approach is the service and network delivery architecture. “While cloud services targeted to the enterprise like Office 365 and AWS are global in their availability, individual enterprises are assigned one key data center, usually the one closest to headquarters. Employees at distributed offices must therefore traverse the public Internet to access this data center, resulting in latency and congestion, especially during peak usage times,” the company said. “Aryaka's Cloud Network, delivered as a service, bypasses this process, enabling businesses to deliver fast, consistent, enterprise-wide access over a private network to cloud data and access cloud services in locations that were previously too beleaguered by latency.”

This cloud-neutral approach with high performance is a hoped for differentiator. “Aryaka's Cloud Network as-a-service allows any location to quickly access any application, whether on premise or in the cloud, across one platform. This is our vision: to simplify the network for businesses of all sizes while delivering exceptional performance,” said Ajit Gupta, President and CEO, Aryaka.

 Battle for Cloud Performance

The cloud is only as fast as the slowest portion of the network that delivers it, and enterprises are rapidly increasing bandwidth so cloud apps perform acceptably. And recent findings from 451 Research show that boosting bandwidth is a top priority. “Thirty-eight percent of enterprises surveyed are planning to increase spending on networking services and technology in 2014, compared to 2013,” 451 Research shows.

One client is already onboard. “Our remote employees had been complaining about slow application response times around the world,” said Brad Taylor, global director of tech operations at Calypso. “We considered moving resources closer by building out more data centers or investing in fully meshed MPLS links with WAN optimization hardware appliances. It made better sense to go with a service model like Aryaka for many reasons and not just cost and performance. We needed a solution -- fast -- and with Aryaka's quick turn-up we saw immediate results. SCP over SSH runs 20X faster over Aryaka. SVN source-code checkout runs 13X faster.”

And client inMobi is likewise smitten. “The cloud is becoming an increasingly critical foundation for our distributed data center operations,” said Mohit Saxena, co-founder and VP of technology, InMobi. “As we researched ways to increase data transfer rates over our expanding WAN, we constantly ran up against costly and complex solutions like appliance hardware and MPLS links. We chose Aryaka because we value the consistency and affordability of their dedicated network performance as well as their 24/7 quality support.”

WAN Optimization Still Matters

Aryaka this year found its way into Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for WAN optimization.

Aryaka has its own virtual network through which it delivers WAN optimization as a service. We’ll let Gartner pick it up from here. “The Aryaka offering is not a traditional managed device service; it provides WAN optimization embedded within Aryaka's network. By deploying WAN optimization within a network overlay model, the Aryaka WAN Optimization as-a-Service solution often eliminates the need for on-premises appliances and can optimize both corporate network traffic and externally hosted applications within software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) deployments,” Gartner said.

This approach is particularly good for enterprises that are spread around the world, and may have difficulty optimizing each location themselves.

As always, Gartner analyses a company’s strengths and weaknesses, no matter how magic they may be.

On the upside, “Aryaka offers a simplified deployment model that includes a highly redundant and business-class network overlay with integrated WAN optimization services that largely eliminates the need for on-premises hardware and eliminates upfront capital expense for WAN optimization appliances. For locations where local loop bandwidth is limited, Aryaka provides a simple on-premises caching appliance,” Gartner said, adding that shops can also save money going the services route.

The downside? Two come to Gartner’s mind. “Aryaka's footprint is missing some locations (specific POPs close to major SaaS and IaaS data centers) to ensure overall global performance to some regions and cloud providers. Be sure to test applications to ensure adequate performance,” the research house argued.

And there are a few gaps. “While Aryaka has strong network-based optimizations, as well as some application-specific optimizations, the solution does not cover all application environments or features of the leading appliance-based solutions. Specific gaps are around virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), storage replication and Server Message Block 3 (SMB3)/Network File System (NFS) acceleration,” Gartner said.

Aryaka recently explained its WAN optimization as a service in a video interview with MSPToday. 




Edited by Rory J. Thompson
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]

MSPToday Editor at Large

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Related Articles

Shining a Light on the Dark Web: Searchlight Cyber Debuts Comprehensive Hub

By: Greg Tavarez    3/28/2024

The Dark Web Hub is a one-stop shop for crucial context and continuously updated information on dark web marketplaces, ransomware actors, hacking foru…

Read More

Stellar Cyber and Trellix Bridge the Gap in Security Operations

By: Greg Tavarez    3/28/2024

Stellar Cyber announced the integration with Trellix Endpoint Security HX to allow customers to deploy more robust security solutions and improve thei…

Read More

CyberSaint Raises $21M in Series A Funding to Continue Securing its CyberStrong Customers

By: Alex Passett    3/27/2024

CyberSaint announced that it succeeded in a huge $21 million Series A funding round. This was led by Riverside Acceleration Capital (RAC) with other i…

Read More

US Education Receives Security Upgrade with Free Browser Protection Offered by Conceal, Carahsoft

By: Greg Tavarez    3/27/2024

Conceal and Carahsoft recently unveiled an initiative to fortify the cybersecurity infrastructure of U.S. educational institutions.

Read More

Cato's AI Takes Control of Security and Incident Response

By: Greg Tavarez    3/27/2024

With Cato's recently announced Network Stories for Cato XDR, advanced AI algorithms instantly identify outages in customer networks and conduct root c…

Read More