...you could also look into using a cheap off-the-shelf platform and use some of the plethora of free open source stuff that will sort out your traffic shaping, QOS handling, caching servers, access policy / restriction handling etc etc.

Especially for a smaller business, it could save a bundle compared to buying from the likes of Cisco / MS / Clearswift....

While there is nothing inherently wrong with what Quocirca has published in their report - their recommendations are all common-sense, they do neglect to explore the category of vendors who concern themselves with WAN Optimisation and / or Traffic Management.

These vendors have typically evolved from providing relatively 'dumb' load balancers to much more application and network-aware management devices - think of the evolution in intelligence from network hub to switch to load balancer to application traffic manager and you're getting there. For an overview of the playing field today, Gartner provides the following handy report: http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/f5networks/vol2/article1/article1.html

The benefit for the consumers of these vendors' products is essentially one of making more efficient use of the network, hardware and software already in place, with the associated cost savings that this approach yields. As you'd expect, the vast majority of these vendors originate from the US, however there is at least one British success story - Zeus Technology (http://www.zeus.com). Zeus has taken a different approach to all the other vendors by decoupling the clever software required to optimise the application traffic from the network hardware. They now offer the choice of software, hardware appliance and even VMware virtual machines for a truly hardware-independent approach.

If nothing else, it's worth taking a look at this plucky and innovative British software company successfully marking out its territory against larger US competitors.

Jock Busuttil

Product Manager (formerly of Zeus Technology)

"Control means first making sure employees are focused on the things they should be doing and not inadvertently consuming bandwidth for non-work purposes such as browsing YouTube, downloading MP3 files or keeping up with the cricket via IPTV."

Or reading the Register.

ummmm, seriously just cus a new harry potter book is coming doesnt mean that everyone has to write like simpletons and just copy and paste ideas and statements

whole article could be presnted as a few bullet points

- WAN bandwidth finite

- caching, compression and proxies help reduce unneccessary requests

- Users like to do anything but there jobs

- there is software to help with problem

- block youtube and myspace

maybe i should write an 'article' like the one above bout the tinterweb.

The tinterweb is big and has virtually anything you are intrested in available online. Most of the tinterweb is crap.

the insight there nearly blew my mind

Hey now, Dillon, slow down

The Register is work related if you work in the IT industry and is required reading at least ((4*1/workload) + (hours the boss is out the office)) - (facebook time) hours a day. If we didnt read it so much, how would we be able to stay on top of the latest security practices, make informed software choices, or get new exciting ways to make our lusers lives a nightmare?