app accelerator playbook

2 Nortel Confidential

Sales Product PlaybookNortel Application Accelerator

Version: 1.1

Date: April 2007


Product Elevator Pitch

What is it: Product overviewData Center appliance used to accelerate the delivery of web-based applications over the internet and across WANs.

Target Market: Customer profile and deployment opportunityBeneficial to any Enterprise organization that delivers critical web applications to end users over WAN or internet links.

Why is it Needed: Customer issuesDistributing increasing amounts of content to remote users over a link with any degree of latency consumes excessive resources (specifically end user productivity and network bandwidth).

Value Proposition: Customer benefitsImprove end user Quality of Experience and Productivity, reduce bandwidth requirements and cost, eliminate branch server deployments, offload server resources to maximize investment and institute corporate application service level agreements.

Product Solutions: Bundling optionsNortel Application Switch, Business Continuity System, Microsoft OWA and Microsoft SharePoint (via MSFT) and Nortel Professional Services (Application Performance Engineering).

Pricing: Price range (MSRP)$28,990 for the low end and $39,990 for the high end.


What is It?

• The Nortel Application Accelerator is an appliance that is deployed in the data center to accelerate and optimize business critical web-based applications.

• It provides asymmetrical acceleration and acts as a proxy for the web traffic to improve end-user quality of experience (fingertips to eyeballs response) by improving web-based application performance typically from 5-20 times.


Why is it Needed?

• Web Services are significantly on the rise with virtually all Enterprises at least investigating web services.

• Distributed workforce continues to rise.

• The largest driver for application acceleration is to address the challenge of delivering this increasing amount of content to remote users in a cost-effective and manageable manner.


What Are the Benefits?

• End user productivity is a benefit that is hard to quantify but if we take the middle example below this user was able to retrieve their document from Europe in 15 seconds instead of 285 seconds or an 18x improvement.

• This specific real life example includes a 4x reduction in bytes which allows for additional users on the link or even allows the network administrator to reduce their monthly bandwidth requirement and cost.

Livelink Application – Enterprise Content Management


Who Needs It?

• Any Enterprise that has or is planning a roll out of a web application can benefit from the system.

• Large Enterprises with large web applications can benefit from the system.

• This scenario has a large distribution of users with critical business applications that are accessed over a web front end (ex. Email via Outlook Web Access or document management via SharePoint).

• Some verticals are more addressable than others. For instance E-Commerce/Retail and Financial are much more addressable than Education.

• Financial has a large number of web applications and significant distribution (branches) of workforce.

• E-Commerce/Retail has a mandate to provide end user Quality of Experience as a competitive advantage.


What Questions Should I Ask?

• Do you have any applications that are delivered over the web either internally or externally (http or https)?

• MSFT Outlook Web Access, MSFT SharePoint, IBM WebSphere, any internal applications (internal examples include GlobalWeb or Livelink) perhaps?

• Are these applications delivered to any users over a remote link?

• Branch office, home user, remote user, customer or partner perhaps?

• Have you or are you planning on introducing any web-services (XML based SOA implementations)?

If the answer to any of the above questions are YES then the Nortel Application Accelerator can help improve end user Quality of Experience up to 20x and reduce web bandwidth requirements up to 90%.


What Objections May be Raised?

• Symmetrical Acceleration provides better results and is all I need.

• Symmetrical Acceleration is extremely costly, does not serve remote users, small branches, partners or customers nor does symmetrical acceleration provide the improvements to web traffic that the Nortel Application Accelerator can provide.

• Nortel Application Accelerator can complement symmetrical implementations where appropriate (larger branches) and can further reduce traffic going through symmetrical acceleration.

• Web traffic is not that critical to us.

• Web traffic has come full circle and there is a significant resurgence. It is not just 1998 web technology that is addressed here. XML and SOA (web-services) are key to all organizations right now and these are all delivered to the end-user as web (http and https). There is significant growth occurring now.

• You don’t have as many features as the competition.

• Many features that the competitors offer are not only not useful but actually degrade application performance (ex browser multiplexing or TCP multiplexing).

• Nortel’s philosophy is to only include those features that actually improve application performance and are manageable to minimize total cost of ownership.


What Are the Key Features?

• SSL Acceleration• SSL Acceleration works in hardware and frees the server from doing this work which significantly

reduces the load on the server.

• Server Load Balancing• Distributes the client traffic efficiently across multiple web servers to ensure optimized use of the

application server infrastructure.

• Adaptive Compression• Reduces the size of the objects before sending to the client and incorporates factors such as time

to compress and compression levels in order to optimize delivery to consistently ensure enhanced application performance.

• Browser Cache Offload with Version Control• Intelligence to instruct the end users browser to cache content locally to eliminate object requests

over the network link. Also includes controls to instruct the client to request changed content even for objects that are embedded in their long-term cache.

• Delta Encoding• Delivers only the portion of the content that has changed at the binary level to minimize the amount

of data that must traverse the network.

• Application Profiles• Tested, proven and certified acceleration rules created for specific off-the-shelf applications to

reduce operational expenditures (pre-canned).

• Application Reporting• Detailed reports clearly identifying the data reduction and performance improvements achieved.


What is the Product Up-Sell Opportunity?

• Application Acceleration License enables support for:• Adaptive Compression

• Browser Cache Offload and Version Control

• Delta Encoding

• Application Profiles

• Application Reporting

• The solution supports clustering to not only scale the system but simultaneously provide resiliency so multiple units should be pitched.


• The recommended deployment model is to use with a Nortel Application Switch (this cost has been factored into the pricing strategy).

• The model of Nortel Application Switch (NAS) will depend on network characteristics.

• The NAS should provide advanced Application Switching and Security functions.

• The NAS ITM license should be recommended to provide traffic management services to limit non-critical traffic while prioritizing critical application traffic.

• For implementations that have a branch office component with medium to large size branch offices, recommend the Nortel Business Continuity System to provide Wide Area File Services and Branch Office Critical Core Services (Active Directory, Print, DHCP, DNS, WINS).

• Nortel Professional Services should be recommended for the creation of custom Application Profiles as well as any other detailed application performance analysis (not restricted to just web applications).

What is the Solution Up-Sell Opportunity?


Is This the Right Product?

• If the customers primary goal is SSL Acceleration then the Nortel Application Accelerator is the right choice.

• If the customer currently has a Nortel ISD310 or ISD410 (which are no longer supported) then the Nortel Application Accelerator is the right choice.

• If the customer requires both SSL Acceleration and the need to offer remote access services then the Nortel VPN Gateway is the right choice.

• If the customer is looking for symmetrical WAN Acceleration then the right choice is the Nortel Application Accelerator along with the Nortel Business Continuity Switch.


Which Model Should I Sell?

• NAA-510 has no redundant power, disks or fan trays whereas the NAA-610 does.

• NAA-610 is suited to environments that require more than 2000 SSL TPS.

• NAA-610 is suited to environments that have more than 4000 concurrent users accessing an accelerated web service.

• NAA-610 is suited for environments where user response time is the primary factor (as it has 4 processing cores which accelerates compression).

• A nice option is to provide both resiliency and scalability by offering a cluster of NAA-510’s.

NAA-510 NAA-610Througput in Mbps

Throughput Hardware 1,300 2,600Throughput HTTP 650 1,000Throughput Compression Enabled 510 960Througput SSL Enabled 460 850Througput All Services Enabled 420 810

Transaction Rate per Second SSLTPS SSL Hardware 7,000 7,000TPS SSL Acceleration Enabled 2,000 4,700TPS SSL All Services Enabled 2,000 4,300

Connection Rate per SecondConnections Per Second HTTP Proxy 9,500 10,200Connections Per Second All Services Enabled 2,000 3,700

Connection CapacityConcurrenct Connections Hardware 64,000 176,000Concurrent Connections All Services Enabled 20,000 40,000


Why Nortel?

• Application Profiles

• Creating application profiles takes significant expertise, time and cost. Nortel utilizes dedicated development and test engineers to work with the application vendors to build the most optimal profiles. Furthermore, only the Nortel Application Accelerator can add Application Profiles on the fly without any code upgrades.

• Professional Services

• In-house applications can benefit extensively from acceleration but still require analysis and profile work. Nortel has a dedicated team of Application Performance Engineers capable of creating any custom application profile required as well as the expertise to further analyze the actual application and make other server side and network recommendations.

• Network Solutions

• There is no single product to fulfill all networking needs and many of the competition are niche players without access to the breadth and depth of portfolio that Nortel has to offer to deliver end-to-end solutions.

• Ease-of-Use

• We will accept an open challenge from ANY vendor on configuration, implementation and supportability ease-of-use. We have the competitive products in our labs and have seen them all. 20 minutes to install and provision the Nortel Application Accelerator versus multiple days for the competition is not an exaggeration.


SWOT Analysis: Nortel vs. Cisco

COMPETITOR WEAKNESSES

COMPETITOR THREATS

NORTEL STRENGTHS

NORTEL OPPORTUNITIES

> Since AVS is not integrated into other aspects of Cisco gear it is a relatively easy target in all but the most die-hard Cisco shops.

> Target the Application Administrators when going against Cisco as their lack of Application Profiles will make the Application Administrators very nervous.

> Target existing Nortel Application Switch (Alteon) install base of more than 60K units.

> Ease-of-use is by far the easiest way to displace the Cisco AVS.

> AVS cannot be used without very extensive expertise even for the most basic configurations.

> Cisco has only a low-end solution with no high-end device and even this is 17% more expensive than the NAA-510.

Competitor Product (s): Application Velocity System 3120 (Fineground)

> Version 6.0 code pulled from the web as base functionality to proxy content did not work – Nortel has open cases with Cisco on this.

> Entire configuration must be done by hand by modifying shell files.

> System does not come with any Reporting or Statistics.

> No support for Application Profiles or Single System Image.

> Very weak platform with no room for growth.

> Market and Mind Share> Large feature count including Application

Security and XML


SWOT Analysis: Nortel vs. Juniper


COMPETITOR THREATS

NORTEL STRENGTHS


> Organizations that are looking towards a solution approach and single vendor network supplier.

> Medium and large sized enterprises where Juniper has priced themselves out of.


> Price: Nortel is on average 54% less expensive than Juniper and that is just the Capital Expenditure.

> Ease-of-use with Application Profiles and support for Browser Cache Offload and Delta Encoding techniques.

> Hardware platforms: Nortel platforms offer much more room for growth and expansion of multiple services.

Competitor Product (s): DX Series (Redline)

> Juniper does not have support for browser cache offload or version control.

> Juniper does not have pre-tested and pre-canned Application Profiles.

> Juniper has selective compression but not Adaptive Compression.

> Juniper does not have support for Single System Image (i.e. upgrade entire cluster at once).

> Juniper has the most speeds and feeds claiming hundreds of thousands of connections. This is due to their ASIC based system which limits their responsiveness and flexibility over Linux based systems.


SWOT Analysis: Nortel vs. Citrix


COMPETITOR THREATS

NORTEL STRENGTHS



> Medium and large sized enterprises where Citrix has priced themselves out of.


> Price: Nortel can provide a resilient application switching tier using best in class Nortel Application Switch along with Application Acceleration for the same price as a single NetScaler device.

> Ease-of-use with Application Profiles.

Competitor Product (s): NetScaler Series (NetScaler)

> No Adaptive Compression, no Browser Cache Offload, no Application Profiles.

> No active-active clustering or single system imaging.

> The most expensive vendor in this space where everything is an optional add-on.

> Optional integrated SLB for non HTTP applications.

> Multi-protocol compression using client software.

> Inflated Data Sheet speeds and feeds. Data Sheet includes things that are not possible such as 4000Mbps over 4 ports when Linux can only drive around 2600Mbps.


SWOT Analysis: Nortel vs. F5


COMPETITOR THREATS

NORTEL STRENGTHS




> Ease-of-use: WebAccelerator is still a very manual system which requires operational expertise whereas the Nortel Application Accelerator does not. The Application Profiles for NAA are much more complete.

> Performance: The NAA acceleration improvements are proven to be closer to 20x (over 300ms links) whereas F5 statements are closer to 4x (over 400ms links).

Competitor Product (s): WebAccelerator (Swanlabs)

> No standalone server load balancing.> Limited SSL support with SSL offload only (no

support for certificate management etc).> No Centralized Management or Single System

Image support.> No low-end platform.

> On paper F5 is feature rich and very close to NAA at first glance.

> F5 has a WebAccelerator Module for their Big-IP even though its performance is not even capable of low-end.

> More Application Profiles listed.


Pricing and Product Codes

• Nortel Application Accelerator 510• PEC EB1639177E5• MSRP $ 18,995• WPP $ 11,871

• Nortel Application Accelerator 610• PEC EB1639178E5• MSRP $ 29,995• WPP $ 13,498

• Application Acceleration License30-day demo license is available• PEC EB1639179• MSRP $ 9,995• WPP $ 6,247

• Pass Through Services• Technical Support GE5300000• Return & Replace GL5300000• Next Business Day GF5300000• Same Business Day GG5300000• 4-hour 7x24 GH5300000

• Pass Through Services with Labor• Next Business Day GJ5300000• Same Business Day GK5300000• 4-hour 7x24 GN5300000

• Partner Managed Services• Next Business Day GF5500000• Same Business Day GG5500000• 4-hour 7x24 GH5500000

• Partner Managed Services with Labor• Next Business Day GJ5500000• Same Business Day GK5500000• 4-hour 7x24 GN5500000


Key Wins, Case Studies and References

• Pre-GA so none at this time.

• Internal References:• Nortel IS – Application Performance Engineering


Sales FAQ

• Who can I contact if I need help?Product Line Manager Product Marketing ManagerDale O’Grady Dan [email protected] [email protected] (ESN 395) 408.495.2065 (ESN 265)

• Where can I find more information?• Nortel GlobalWeb Product Portal under Application

Acceleration

• Where can I find the roadmap?• Contact PLM

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

app accelerator playbook

Business

web services

web traffic

web http

large web applications

critical web applications

delivery of web

web technology

soa webservices