We read with great interest this article on NetworkWorld.com by Jim Metzler which looks at the WAN virtual appliance market over the next 12 – 18 months. We are always very interested in analyst projections, industry influencers’ opinions, bloggers writings, venture capital investments, public market reactions for the WAN virtual appliance market. In particular, this Network World article takes a look at what we consider the basis for our blog – do businesses want to base their branch office IT operations on a server or on a virtual appliance?

 The author suggests that WAN virtual appliances are a disrupting force in the legacy application delivery market – here, here. The two main features that are pointed out in the article as drivers for vendors to influence decision makers in the WAN virtual appliance market space are: performance and manageability. We would add to this ease of integration and ability to influence OPEX and CAPEX costs. The way we look at this market is that if a business can use a virtual appliance and increase performance, use existing management tools, integrate with existing infrastructure, and reduce costs – why would you add another piece of hardware in form of a server?