Boom market for WAN optimisers

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 15 July 2009 12:32

IT Industry - Strategy

Frost & Sullivan has valued the Asia-Pacific WAN optimisation controller market at $US246.8m in 2008 and is predicting strong growth thanks to enterprises "reeling from often inadequate and costly bandwidth."

According to F&S the market in 2008 was 21 percent up on 2007 but growth is expected to slow with 2009 revenues only 13.3 percent up to an estimated $279.6m at year end. However 2010 is expected to be better with sales rising 22.2. Beyond 2010 "a healthy CAGR of 19 percent is expected from 2009," F&S says. In 2008, Australia was the biggest spender on WAN optimisation accounting for 24 percent $US59.2m of the revenues..

According to F&S, "WAN optimisation solutions have rapidly moved from 'hype' to 'hero' in the past year as these tools have become the preferred choice for companies in optimising bandwidth utilisation to support their regional expansion needs. The explosion of corporate WANs (wide area networks) across Asia-Pacific, as the region continues to be the growth hub for many, has left corporations reeling from often inadequate and costly bandwidth, particularly in developing economies, while needing to ensure reliable IT connectivity."

Large enterprises accounted for 61.6 percent ($US152m) of the revenues in 2008 - a majority of these investments being at data centres and branch offices, F&S says. However F&S analyst, Arun Chandrasekaran expects uptake among SMEs to rise as WAN optimisation solutions mature in scalability, functionality and affordability, especially if the drive towards integration with other security and networking solutions becomes a reality.

"The idea of managed WAN optimisation services, which are said to be on the cards, will also drive SME adoption, as well as speed-up the use of the technology in the fast-growing and geographically dispersed Southeast Asian nations, India and China," he says.

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