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The Precarious State of the WAN

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Michael Vizard
Michael Vizard
Mar 28, 2014

The Precarious State of the WAN

WAN Traffic Growth by RegionWAN Traffic Growth by Region

Overall worldwide mean growth in demand for WAN bandwidth grew 282%. China: 485%, Asia-Pacific: 321%, Europe, the Middle East and Africa: 312%, India: 302%, North America: 282%

Average WAN Access Link SpeedsAverage WAN Access Link Speeds

Most WAN connections into branch offices are relatively slow. Greater than 41 Mbps: 12%, 21 to 40 Mbps: 8%, 11 to 20 Mbps: 21%, 10 Mbps: 26%, 5 to 9 Mbps: 14%, Less than 4 Mbps: 19%

Top Types of WAN TrafficTop Types of WAN Traffic

HTTPS traffic has increased significantly as organizations move to encrypt their web traffic. HTTP: 96%, CIFS: 87%, Microsoft Remote Desktop: 82%, HTTPS: 81%, Microsoft Endpoint Mapper: 76%, SMTP: 55%

Top Types of WAN Traffic by VolumeTop Types of WAN Traffic by Volume

Web traffic in the form of HTTP has moved to the fore in terms of total volume. HTTP: 24%, CIFS: 20%, FTP: 18%, HTTPS: 15%, RSYNC: 12%, Symantec: 11%

Type of Applications With Greatest Potential for Data Reduction on WANType of Applications With Greatest Potential for Data Reduction on WAN

Not all application types lend themselves equally to compression to reduce bandwidth consumption. Perforce: 84%, Print JetDirect: 83%, DNS Service Replication: 79%, Microsoft SQL: 68%, IMAP: 62%, HTTP: 61%

Minutes of Bad WAN Traffic in North AmericaMinutes of Bad WAN Traffic in North America

A “bad minute” is one in which either measured ping packet loss exceeds 4 percent or where ping packet loss exceeds 1 percent and TCP retransmissions exceed 3 percent., Less than 0.5 percent: 81%, 0.5 percent to 2 percent: 11%, 2 to 5 percent: 6%, Greater than 5 percent: 2%

Packet Loss Per RegionPacket Loss Per Region

WAN networks are less reliable in developing regions. China: 2.1%, India: 2.1%, Asia-Pacific: 1.7%, North America: 0.7%, Europe, the Middle East and Africa: 0.3%

Percentage of Companies Using WAN Acceleration for Cloud ApplicationsPercentage of Companies Using WAN Acceleration for Cloud Applications

Usage of WAN acceleration techniques to accelerate cloud application performance remains in its infancy. No: 89%, Yes: 12%

Average Percentage of Accelerated WAN TrafficAverage Percentage of Accelerated WAN Traffic

Those that accelerate cloud traffic tend to generate a lot of bandwidth requirements. All Other WAN Traffic: 53%, Accelerated WAN Traffic: 47%

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