Blue Coat launches new Virtual WAN Optimisation products

Blue Coat said the new products would help firms consolidate their IT infrastructure

WAN optimisation and security firm Blue Coat Systems today announced the launch of a new range of Virtual WAN Optimisation appliances designed to help firms consolidate their IT infrastructure and improve the delivery of business applications.

Mark Urban, senior director of product marketing, explained that the new products will enable firms to meet a number of growing challenges in the enterprise space.

"As firms run more applications on their systems – especially video – the new systems we are offering from today are designed to help reduce the bandwidth being used and therefore reduce the burden on companies’ servers," he said.

"Additionally, the new offerings will help improve the speeds at which applications can run, and so in turn help employees save time and provide increased productivity for companies as well."

Urban added that Blue Coat has worked with VMware to ensure the new products can run on its systems in virtual environments, offering greater flexibility for customers.

"The new products have been in development for some nine to 12 months with VMware, including beta tests and customer tests, and have been through a rigorous certification process," he added.

The Virtual WAN Optimisation suite of products will be available from 31 March, on four different levels. The VA-5 can support up to 10 users, the VA-10 can support 50 users, the VA-15 supports 150 and the VA-20 supports up to 300.

Additionally, to make the products more attractive in terms of pricing, the company will be offering them on a subscription model of one- or three-year terms.

"The subscription model gives firms a chance to try the products without a huge capital expenditure. For example, the VA-5 Virtual Appliance starts from $1,100 (£738) for a year, so there is no large initial capital outlay," Urban explained.

The new products will be available through Blue Coat's channel partners including Dell.