The Top 5 WAN Optimization Tools

Explore the top WAN Optimization Tools offering bandwidth optimization, traffic management, and acceleration features to improve network performance and user experience across wide area networks.

Last updated on May 20, 2024

Written by Mirren McDade

The Top 5 WAN Optimization Tools include:

1. Aruba WAN Optimization
2. Cisco SD-WAN
3. FatPipe WAN Optimization
4. Riverbed Steelhead
5. Sangfor WANO

Wide Area Network (WAN) optimization tools are essential for ensuring seamless and efficient network operations across large geographical locations.

WAN (Wide Area Networks) optimization is a technique that improves the speed and reliability of data transfer across networks. This is achieved through various methods including caching, compression, encryption, and load balancing, etc. WAN optimization tools work by making use of various technologies and strategies like data deduplication, compression, caching, and protocol optimization. This allows them to reduce bandwidth usage, speed up application performance, and improve data transmission speeds.

In a time where digital services are in such high demand, keeping networks running optimally is more important than ever. But with so many great options available on the market, choosing the right WAN optimization tool can be challenging; we’ve put together this comprehensive guide, helping you to identify the right solution for your use-case.

Aruba WAN Optimization

HPE Aruba Networking, a division of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, offers a robust SD-WAN edge platform engineered specifically for the cloud. Aruba’s platform is designed to deliver unified WAN optimization. It can accelerate applications and efficiently utilize bandwidth, ensuring that you get the most you can from your WAN.

Aruba’s WAN optimization is designed to be flexible, unified, and efficient. It allows application for site-specific WAN optimization with ease and efficiency. Add-on features such include a performance pack that offers on-demand application acceleration. The platform is licensed in 100 Mbps increments, offering flexibility in applying the product only where it’s needed, thereby managing costs effectively. The solution mitigates latency to enhance application response times, while also maximizing bandwidth, thereby facilitates speedier backups and file transfers. One of the standout features of Aruba’s WAN optimization solution is the smooth, ‘one-click’ deployment, which enables effortless application of WAN optimization.

HPE Aruba Networking provides a unified WAN optimization solution in its cloud-based SD-WAN edge platform that scales with your needs. Its key benefits include reduced latency, maximized bandwidth, and cost-effectiveness. Users can also expect swift and easy deployment of the solution with its unique ‘one-click’ feature.

Cisco SD-WAN

Cisco SD-WAN is a network management solution that facilitates the secure and efficient linking of users to applications, irrespective of location. It utilizes a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture to provide extensive interconnected capabilities between various clouds, boost security, and offers predictive intelligence.

Key features of Cisco SD-WAN include the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics and ThousandEyes, which shift network operations from a reactive to a predictive model. The solution has easy integration with leading cloud service providers including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. It optimizes SaaS applications like Microsoft 365 and Webex by Cisco to improve efficiency and incorporates an integrated security system to protect remote users, branches, and cloud applications with zero-trust enforcement and secure segmentation. It also employs automation across provisioning, configuration, management, and monitoring, to simplify network operations.

Cisco SD-WAN is a cloud-native solution that accelerates the adoption of SASE, offering secure and seamless connectivity from every user and device to every cloud. The product is designed to enhance efficiency, resiliency, and ultimately free up networking resources for strategic tasks.

FatPipe WAN Optimization

FatPipe offers enterprise-grade, application-aware, Secure Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solutions. Unlike other offerings in the market, FatPipe’s WAN optimization operates on both the byte and file levels to maximize redundancy detection, de-duplication, and transmission efficiency.

FatPipe’s SD-WAN solution offers high performance with a combination of fast read/write memory and disk storage for a vast working space and improved performance. Its system achieves a reduction in WAN traffic data, significantly improving bandwidth utilization. A key feature of the product is its application/data independence, offering faster WAN caching at the byte level. The platform also includes Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities for enhanced granular control on data flow, and real-time charting for monitoring original and optimized data for each site, instant and transparent implementation, and auto-synchronization to prevent data desynchronization or corruption in distributed environments.

FatPipe’s architecture includes critical features like real-time monitoring, instant implementation, auto-synchronization, and integration with existing IPSec/firewall, ensuring a reliable, redundant, efficient, optimized, and secure WAN for organizations.

Riverbed Steelhead

Riverbed Steelhead is a leading network optimization and application performance solution designed to enhance business productivity. Drawing on nearly two decades of operational experience in improving network and application performance over Wide Area Networks, Steelhead aims to streamline the operations of businesses of all scales and improve the efficiency of their networks and applications.

Steelhead’s primary function is to ensure better network utilization and mitigate latency. With its Data Streamlining feature, Riverbed optimizes network efficiency by reducing redundant transmission of data. Its Transport Streamlining features focus on enhancing the network performance by actively reducing the effects of latency, while its Application Streamlining feature works to enhance application performance and user experience by reducing application protocol chattiness and latency. Riverbed Steelhead also sets itself apart by providing Elastic Performance that is adaptable to all networks and can accelerate any application for users, regardless of their location. This allows for a flexible and custom fit performance optimization whether you’re in the office, working remotely, or on the move.

Riverbed Steelhead is an efficient solution for maximized network and application performance, enabling the mitigation of latency, and enhancing user experience, thereby streamlining business productivity.

Sangfor WANO

Sangfor offers the WANO (WAN Optimization) system, an IT infrastructure and security solution that significantly enhances connectivity and efficiency across wide area networks. One of its key use-cases is in disaster recovery optimization, with capabilities that can reportedly increase data transmission speeds threefold, resulting in improving backup speeds and reduced backup times.

WANO offers a full path optimization solution that is developed in collaboration with a cloud provider. This solution effectively addresses the challenges of high latency, packet loss and unstable connectivity across international networks. By replacing all or part of allocated internet access lines, such as Metro-E/MPLS/IPVPN, WANO can enhance bandwidth, reduce WAN expenditure, and prevent the risk of a single failure in the WAN link. With WANO, user experience is further optimized by reducing elongated response times in high latency WANs. For users struggling with poor experiences due to high latency, packet loss and limited bandwidth on satellite links, WANO offers a practical, cost-effective solution.

Sangfor’s WANO system significantly improves connectivity and efficiency, increasing data transmission rates and enhancing user experience. Its array of optimization features ensures an efficient, secure, and cost-effective solution for wide area network users.

Everything You Need to Know About Top WAN Optimization Tools (FAQs)

What Is A WAN Optimization Tool?

A WAN is a wide area network, meaning a network that spans across a large geographical area. Some reasons an organization might need a WAN include:

Needing to connect remote offices or branches to central locations
Facilitating connectivity between sites with different IT infrastructure
To connect data centers with internet providers
To connect mobile devices and corporate networks

WAN optimization is the process of enhancing data transfer efficiency across a wide area network between remote locations and data centers. A WAN optimization solution can help to improve network performance by reducing latency between users and devices or applications. These solutions also help to reduce consumption of bandwidth and minimize cost for both the users and the service provider.

WAN optimization plays a pivotal role in ensuring efficient and seamless data transfer between geographically diverse business locations. As businesses seek to expand their operations globally, the need to facilitate more effective communication will become increasingly important. WAN optimization offers a solution to navigate some of the potential issues that may stem from network expansion, including drops in coverage and bottlenecks.

How Do WAN Optimization Tools work?

WAN Optimization Tools work by improving the efficiency of data transfer across the Wide Area Network (WAN). They do this by reducing the amount of data that needs to be sent across the network through techniques such as data caching, compression, de-duplication, and protocol optimization. These tools provide improved bandwidth utilization, reduced network congestion, and improved application performance – all essential for businesses with geographically diverse locations sharing the same network.

Keeping networks operating at peak performance is crucial for organizations, which require efficient, reliable communication between different locations for efficient business operations. WAN optimization tools achieve this by improving the speed and reliability of data transfers and reducing latency. They significantly enhance an organization’s network efficiency, thereby leading to increased productivity and cost savings.

What Features Should You Look For When Choosing Top WAN Optimization Tools?

When selecting top WAN Optimization Tools, consider the following features:

Data De-Duplication – This feature identifies and eliminates duplicate data, meaning that redundant copies of data are not transmitted across the network. This helps to reduce the amount of data that needs to be sent, ensuring that bandwidth is better conserved and data transfers are speedy.
Compression – Data compression works to reduce the size of data being transmitted over the network by encoding it more efficiently. Doing this reduces the among of bandwidth needed for the data transfer, thereby improving transmission times and enhancing overall network performance.
Protocol Optimization – Protocol optimization enhances the efficiency for network communication protocols, leading to a reduction in latency and in the overheads associated with the transmission of data. Streamlining protocol interaction helps to improve not only the efficiency of the data transfer and the use of bandwidth, but also the overall user experience.
Caching – This function allows frequently accessed data to be stored locally, thereby significantly improving response times and bandwidth usage. Caching improves network performance and efficiency, providing faster response times for users and minimizing the load on network resources.
Quality of Service (QoS) – This refers to the ability to prioritize network traffic to make sure that critical applications receive the necessary bandwidth and resources. This helps to maintain performance and reliability of essential applications, reduce latency, and packet loss, as well as ensuring that periods of high network demand do not negatively impact user experience.
Scalability – Any WAN optimization tool that you consider implementing should adapt to your business growth and be capable of handling increased network traffic without issues.
Ease-of-Use – The tool should have an intuitive interface that makes it easy for IT administrators to use and manage.
Security – The best WAN optimization tools will come with build-in security features, including encrypted communication protocols, that work to ensure your data is protected during transit.

Mirren McDade

Senior Journalist & Content Writer

Mirren McDade is a senior writer and journalist at Expert Insights, spending each day researching, writing, editing and publishing content, covering a variety of topics and solutions, and interviewing industry experts. She is an experienced copywriter with a background in a range of industries, including cloud business technologies, cloud security, information security and cyber security, and has conducted interviews with several industry experts. Mirren holds a First Class Honors degree in English from Edinburgh Napier University.