Wide area file services (WAFS) products allow remote office users to access and share files globally at
LAN speeds over the
WAN. Distributed enterprises that deploy WAFS solutions are able to consolidate storage to corporate datacenters, eliminating the need to back up and manage data that previously resided in their remote offices. WAFS uses techniques such as
SMB and
MAPI
Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) is an API for Microsoft Windows which allows programs to become email-aware. While MAPI is designed to be independent of the protocol, it is usually used to communicate with Microsoft Exchange Ser ...
protocol optimization,
data compression
In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression ...
, and sometimes storing recurrent data patterns in a local
cache
Cache, caching, or caché may refer to:
Places United States
* Cache, Idaho, an unincorporated community
* Cache, Illinois, an unincorporated community
* Cache, Oklahoma, a city in Comanche County
* Cache, Utah, Cache County, Utah
* Cache Count ...
.
WAFS is a subset of
WAN optimization
WAN optimization is a collection of techniques for improving data transfer across wide area networks (WANs). In 2008, the WAN optimization market was estimated to be $1 billion, and was to grow to $4.4 billion by 2014 according to Gartner, a techn ...
, which also caches
SSL Intranet and
ASP applications and
elearning
Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refers ...
multimedia traffic as well, to accelerate a greater percentage of WAN traffic.
The term was coined by Brad O'Neill of the
analyst firm Taneja Group
Taneja Group was an analyst and consulting group headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. It was founded in 2003 by Arun Taneja, and provided analysis and consulting for the technology industry. Specializing in storage and virtualization, it w ...
in a May 2004 article for ''InfoStor'' magazine.
References
External links
"WAFS reins in remote office backup"
Wide area networks
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