Versatile machines
IT appliances are low-cost options to software for integration and data management
By Bob Violino, contributing editor -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 11/1/2005 7:00:00 AM
Eric Nichols had a well-laid plan for reducing the number of Microsoft Exchange servers on his corporate wide area network. Then he discovered what turned out to be a better idea: something called a Steelhead appliance from Riverbed Technology.
"We unpacked the appliances, put them on the network, and within 10 minutes they were doing what they were supposed to do," says Nichols, CIO at St. Louis-based Solutia, a $2.7-billion manufacturer of chemicals, plastics, and nylons used in the automotive, electronic, and other industries. The appliances quickened the flow of traffic between servers at 10 sites, thereby enabling Solutia to rely on just two servers located at corporate headquarters to manage all of that traffic.
Nichols says that allowed Solutia to drop plans for installing 10 new T1 lines that were supposed to serve as a cushion of extra bandwidth when the plan to go from 10 distributed servers to two centrally located ones was put in place. The end result is that Solutia now has a simpler, more effective WAN infrastructure at a much lower cost than it originally anticipated. The appliances also serve as troubleshooting devices, providing logs that help identify network problems.
Filling a need
Stories like this explain why IT appliances—hardware products that come with software embedded to handle tasks such as application integration, application acceleration, and data management—are gaining popularity in corporate data centers.
Typically, appliances are built to handle only one or two functions, making them ideal for companies looking for a quick, inexpensive solution to a specific IT-related problem.
"An IT appliance has fixed features and functionality … and you pay only for that functionality," says Richard Edwards, research analyst at Butler Group, an IT research firm in Hull, England. "Many IT departments are struggling to keep up with technological advancements, so adopting an appliance limits the amount of knowledge and expertise required to deliver a particular IT function."
This simplicity will become even more of a selling point as applications grow more complex and harder to deploy, says Scott Langdoc, a VP with Boston-based AMR Research.
"IT appliances directed at minimizing application complexity while still providing the required functionality and performance in a way that doesn't dramatically increase IT support resources are needed," says Langdoc. "Having the ability to crunch significant volumes of data without hiring two or three administrators is very compelling."
In fact, the amount of skilled labor needed to configure, install, and support increasingly complicated systems could convince a lot of CIOs to invest in appliances, Langdoc says. While appliances might be especially appealing to small and medium-size companies with limited IT staffs, they will be attractive to larger enterprises looking to adopt "purpose-fit technologies," he adds.
In particular, Langdoc says, appliances can help companies struggling to configure server systems, databases, and other applications so that they work together to perform specific business processes.
Appliances do have drawbacks, however. One of the major benefits of traditional software applications that run on various hardware platforms is their flexibility. "[Regular software applications] can be more readily adjusted to a unique company environment," Langdoc says. "With appliances, you might run up against constraints because they are designed for a specific approach."
Enterprises also have to guard against using too many devices. "Managing one or two appliances is fine; managing 100 appliances from 20 vendors could be a nightmare," says Edwards.
Strong sales
Still, IT appliance vendors say business is strong. Riverbed began selling its Steelhead products in 2004 and is approaching 300 customers, according to Alan Saldich, a company VP. Another vendor, Cast Iron Systems, has seen sales of its appliances easily exceed company targets, says Simon Peel, VP of worldwide marketing. "Appliances are just coming of age," he says.
The Cast Iron appliances, called application routers, enable application integration in conjunction with existing enterprise application integration (EAI) systems. The routers combine system connectivity, data transformation, intelligent routing, and management in one device that plugs into a network.
A router can be used to share data between databases, enterprise applications, XML data sources, legacy systems, and files. It provides a set of graphical tools to design, deploy, and manage integration projects. The deployment and management tasks can be handled through a user interface called the Web Management Console.
Kyocera Wireless Corp., San Diego, is using a Cast Iron appliance as a B2B integration engine. The company, a subsidiary of Kyocera Corp. in Japan, employs more than 50 outsourcers to handle repairs of its cell phones. Still, Kyocera wants to track each repair event to ensure the quality of the work, and that partners performing the repairs are paid on time.
Kyocera's IT team had initially cobbled together custom code consisting of multiple batch scripts to convert XML files coming from the service partners' systems into the proper format for entering into Kyocera's Oracle11i ERP system. But this wasn't an adequate long-term solution because it was difficult to manage and wasn't scalable. In addition, multiple batch scripts didn't allow real-time updates, which hampered Kyocera's ability to track repairs as closely as it wished.
Kyocera wanted a system that would automate the transfer of data about repair events to its Oracle system, in real time, allowing quick problem detection and correction. The company researched EAI solutions and found they were prohibitively complex and costly. The Cast Iron appliance, called Application Router 1000, met Kyocera's needs.
Plug and play
Kyocera's service partners continue to post repair information as XML files over the Internet as in the past, but the appliance immediately validates and converts files to update the Oracle system. The router also sends an e-mail notification to partners, letting them know of the success or failure of each transaction.
Among the benefits to Kyocera are reduced costs—a single database developer with a few days training can build and manage partner integration projects using the appliance. Kyocera's improved event-tracking ability also has enhanced its collaboration with partners.
Ease of implementation of the appliance was a major plus, says Art Wolfkind, Kyocera's IT manager, business applications. "It's a one-stop solution. Everything's integrated so you don't have to go to a hardware supplier and a software supplier to get the solution you're looking for," Wolfkind says.
Kyocera plans to use the Cast Iron application router for additional integration projects in both the manufacturing and distribution areas of the business.
Moving traffic
While Solutia used a Steelhead appliance to support a server consolidation effort, another company, Fisher & Co., a St. Claire Shores, Mich.-based maker of auto-seat reclining equipment, uses a Steelhead appliance to move large CAD files between product design centers located in different parts of the world.
Saldich says the Steelhead appliance compresses data, but it also does other things to actually speed the flow of traffic.
First, it makes a copy of the file being sent and stores it in the memory of a second appliance at the receiving end of the network. Second, Saldich says, the appliance is programmed to learn what a user is asking for when making certain keystrokes. That allows it to anticipate the data a user is requesting, thereby cutting the time it takes to respond to the request.
In cases like Fisher's, in which the user can change what's called up, Saldich says the appliance sends only the new information to the receiving end, further cutting data travel time.
The Steelhead appliances are available in varying sizes to meet the needs of remote sites—from small sales offices to major design centers and corporate facilities with thousands of employees. The appliances don't require any client-side or server-side configuration; applications will continue to work as they did before the appliances were deployed, but at an accelerated rate. Steelhead appliances are built on an application-independent architecture, on top of which Riverbed has built a series of application-specific "latency modules" that optimize programs such as Microsoft Windows and Exchange.
Steelhead appliances can be managed remotely. Companies with multiple appliances can deploy a separate, optional Central Management Console appliance that allows them to configure and manage many appliances simultaneously.
Integration, app to app
Cisco Systems, which supplies networking gear, says its new line of Application-Oriented Networking (AON) products, introduced in June, will perform application integration. The AON products are based on new technology that Cisco says reads application-to-application messages—such as purchase orders, invoice transactions, or shipment approvals—moving within a network.
The AON products, including modules for data-center switches and branch-office routers, enable business applications and the network to work together as an integrated system, according to Cisco.
In September, Cisco announced the Cisco Demand Driven Supply Chain (DDSC) solution, an appliance that links business applications throughout a supply chain over Internet Protocol. The product enables companies to improve collaboration and better integrate information and processes spanning the entire manufacturing workflow, says Scott Westlake, worldwide manufacturing industry marketing lead at Cisco.
Cisco teamed with D.W. Morgan Co.to provide manufacturers with supply chain expertise and logistics planning with the Cisco DDSC product. Using the system, companies can more effectively respond to customer demands and share information in real time in a secure environment with all partners, Westlake says.
Another vendor, Netezza, offers an appliance for enterprise data warehousing and data management. The Netezza Performance Server (NPS) integrates a relational database, server, and storage system into a single unit that the vendor says delivers up to 50 times the performance of traditional data warehouse systems.
AMR's Langdoc expects vendors to continue boosting the performance and capacity of appliances.
Other developments will be aimed at making the products even easier to use, such as simplifying user interfaces on consoles, Langdoc says. He also expects to see the cost of appliances decline as competition in the marketplace grows.
