Ipanema will offer WAN optimization as a small business service

Ipanema Technologies, the France-based maker of WAN optimization gear, announced Monday that it would integrate that technology into the company's AppsWork product, which is designed for use by small businesses.

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In partnership with distributor Ingram Micro, Ipanema will offer ostensibly hassle-free WAN optimization through AppsWork, a cloud service that provides a range of other network performance enhancements on demand.

In a statement, Ipanema said that it expects SMBs to use the new feature on potential system bottlenecks created by large file transfers, which can be problematic for companies with limited amounts of money to spend on infrastructure.

"The WAN optimization feature mitigates the impact of delay for 'chatty' applications like Common Internet File System and Windows File Transfer. The main benefits are increased available bandwidth and reduced application transfer time, and as a result, a significantly enhanced user experience," the company said.

Features that would otherwise require a dedicated (and potentially costly) on-premise WAN optimization box or remote service can be had for "a few dollars per user per month," Ipanema said, as part of the existing AppsWork product.

The exact cost: an additional monthly charge of $5 per user.

AppsWork, which was originally launched in April, uses a Salesforce.com-based user interface and is hosted on Rackspace servers. As Ipanema restated Monday, the service is intended to provide a shortcut to small businesses that need to improve network performance without spending heavily on new infrastructure or traditionally provisioned network management gear.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

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