Virtela Launches World's First Cloud-Based Application Acceleration Service and Application Performance Guarantee

DENVER, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtela, the world's largest independent managed network services company, announced today the industry's first virtualized application acceleration service, offering enterprises the ability to turbo-charge business applications up to 25 times faster at the flip of a switch for just $5 a day per branch office. Virtela's breakthrough price/performance is backed by the world's first application response time guarantee: If customers do not experience faster response times, they do not pay – and Virtela will pay them 250% of their service charge.

Enabled by Virtela's Enterprise Services Cloud (ESC) architecture, also announced today, Virtela's Cloud-Based Application Acceleration Service virtualizes acceleration devices within the network cloud, enabling enterprises to escape the high cost and complexity of dedicated hardware appliances at each branch office. The service can be activated instantly in more than 190 countries at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions.

Global manufacturer Measurement Specialties is currently using Virtela's cloud-based application acceleration service between sites in the U.S. and Europe. Turned up in less than 30 seconds, the service has already delivered impressive results that the company plans to extend to other locations worldwide.

"I didn't realize I'd need a seatbelt; everyday tasks like mapping drives and querying folders on remote servers are smokin' fast – easily 25 times faster with Virtela's application acceleration service," said Bob Andreini, global director of IS/IT for Measurement Specialties. "Virtela's service is also enabling us to get the latest sales and operational data in the hands of the management team two hours faster every day. That's clearly accelerating our ability to make key business decisions."

Proven Results

Virtela's Cloud-Based Application Acceleration Service has proven to deliver up to 25x faster performance in many real-world scenarios. The new service accelerates applications between any location – headquarters, data centers, branch offices, mobile workers and partner sites – anywhere in the world. Examples include:

• 7-25x for Microsoft Windows File Sharing (e.g., Microsoft Office)
• 5-17x for Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes Email
• 5-13x for ERP/CRM Applications (e.g., Siebel, Oracle, Salesforce.com)
• 6-10x for Web-based Collaboration (e.g., Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle WebCenter)
• 10-25x for Data Backup and Storage (e.g., EMC, NetApp, Amazon EC2)

The new service offers breakthrough cost savings, with no upfront capital cost and just $5 per day per branch office location. For example, a 20-branch-office network that follows a traditional device-dependent approach would cost $200,000 in year one, compared to $36,000 with Virtela's cloud-based model – five times less.

"Simply put, Virtela's cost model makes application acceleration accessible to all branch offices, not just the select branch offices that could justify the expense," said Michael Suby, director of Stratecast, a division of Frost & Sullivan. "With Virtela's new service, enterprises can say goodbye to class of service planning, configuration and premium pricing and put all traffic in the fast lane backed by a no haggle guarantee."

In tandem with the new cloud-based service, Virtela is announcing the industry's first application response time experience guarantee: If end users do not experience faster applications, customers do not pay for the service, and Virtela will pay them 250% of the service charge. Virtela extends the same guarantee to its appliance-based and hybrid cloud/appliance -based solutions, giving enterprises the flexibility to choose the best solution per location.

Virtela's cloud-based application acceleration service also offers enterprises a new level of simplicity and transparency. The service can be activated from the cloud within minutes, instead of months as required with typical deployments, eliminating the cost and complexity of deploying and maintaining devices in branch offices around the world. Customers have complete visibility into their service performance via the VirtelaView web portal.

Powered By Virtela ESC

Cloud-based application acceleration is the first service to be introduced that is enabled by Virtela ESC, the only cloud architecture purpose-built for enterprise networking, security and mobility. Virtela ESC extends Virtela's disruptive multi-carrier network model to the cloud, up-ending conventional cloud models to deliver the highest cost savings and fastest service activation available worldwide.

• Open Architecture: Virtela ESC is independent of the underlying network, carrier and technology.  As a result, it delivers the best service to any location, using any network, anywhere in the world.
• Locally Distributed: Virtela ESC features 50 Local Cloud Centers (LCCs), distributed around the world in close proximity to end users, to accelerate applications immediately, near the content source.
• Optimized for Virtual Devices:  Virtela ESC applies caching, compression, higher layer communication protocol and other application optimization techniques to reduce application chattiness, resulting in 5-25x faster performance. Virtela ESC's virtualized architecture eliminates the need for application acceleration appliances at branch offices to deliver significant cost savings and instant service activation and changes.

"With more than 3 billion connected devices in use worldwide, end users have come to expect instantaneous applications performance, regardless of device or location," said Vab Goel, CEO of Virtela.  "Enterprises are looking to move from network uptime to response time, which requires a new architecture that can economically deliver LAN-like applications performance over the WAN. Virtela's cloud-based application acceleration service, in concert with Virtela ESC, exceeds those expectations with proven results and is the only service on the market backed by a standard application performance guarantee."

To learn more about Virtela's Cloud-Based Application Acceleration Service, please see these online resources:

• Measurement Specialties Customer Case Study
• Test Drive Virtela's Cloud-Based Application Acceleration Service
• Two-Minute Virtela Application Acceleration Video

Virtela offers an extensive suite of managed network, security, infrastructure management, and application acceleration services, which leverage a unique model that aggregates and integrates the best local, regional and global networks to offer unparalleled geographic reach. By adding a unique overlay of intelligence that performs optimal routing and automatic failover for customer network traffic, Virtela's multi-carrier Global Service Fabric(SM) and Enterprise Services Cloud(SM) give enterprises an inherently higher performing, more resilient and cost effective alternative to traditional carrier networks. Virtela is the single point of contact for expert design, implementation and 24x7 proactive monitoring and management worldwide.

About Virtela

Virtela Technology Services Incorporated, the world's largest independent managed network services company, offers award-winning services, including MPLS and IP-based Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), Security, Infrastructure Management, and Application Acceleration, to enterprise customers around the world. Offering services in 190 countries, Virtela integrates and manages best-of-breed service providers through partnerships with 500+ carriers, to address the unique needs of its customers.

Virtela is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, with Global Network Operations Centers in Denver, Mumbai, India and Manila, Philippines. For more information, please call +1 (720) 475-4000 or visit www.virtela.net.

SOURCE Virtela