XRoads' EdgePro-2500 Traffic Manager Designed With Simplicity In Mind

Irvine, Calif.-based XRoads Networks develops traffic management appliances for the SMB and enterprise markets, which fits the bill for traffic shaping. XRoads' latest product is the EdgePro-2500 Traffic Manager, a device that specializes in WAN optimization, including data compression, and granular QoS for application acceleration. The advantages offered by a highly integrated traffic shaping device are numerous. Those devices can take advantage of all the multiple network paths an institution may have and at the same time address business continuity needs by redistributing bandwidth in the event of a WAN failure.

The EdgePro offers extensive built-in Layer 7 QoS to prioritize network applications according to business priorities. XRoads' QoS solution was designed with simplicity of management in mind. Management tasks are streamlined on a single interface for centralized management and bandwidth control. The EdgePro-2500 works by taking application traffic management to a higher level with application acceleration and bandwidth efficiency tools. Those tools promise to reduce WAN costs, yet still improve application response times.

Traffic shaping and application acceleration can always benefit from load balancingan area where the EdgePro-2500 excels. The unit can combine multiple broadband connections for seamless network load balancing and failover, which also drives the built-in HA (high-availability) mode that provides automatic failover in case of a hardware failure.

Solution providers will find that distributing processing and communications evenly across a network can be extremely important for preventing bottlenecks because distribution of traffic ensures that no single device is overwhelmed.

The EdgePro-2500 offers quick implementation and setup ease for virtually any multi-Web server environment. Activating the unit's load-balancing technology is all but automatic. By detecting traffic flow, the unit prevents a server from being swamped by automatically forwarding a request to another server with more capacity. Load balancing is a complex procedure and requires significant processing power.

The EdgePro-2500 offers impressive network monitoring and graphical reporting, which provides administrators with easy-to-read graphs and charts for statistical analysis. The device's intuitive graphic reporting tool generates charts that can be exported into Excel. Graphical analysis also is provided for items such as utilization, throughput and acceleration statistics. The management interface supports drill-down capabilities, allowing administrators to access more granular statistics such as bandwidth utilization per link, IP tunnel and application.

In the past, load balancing and failover were complex endeavors and administrators needed to allocate extensive resources to set up and maintain those products. But with its advanced wizards, automatic deployment options and context-sensitive help capability, the EdgePro makes load balancing and application acceleration plug-and-play simple. What's more, the product includes a complete set of troubleshooting tools that automate the testing and detection of potential problems with configuration or network issues.

The EdgePro ships with 30-day free installation phone support; however, it is stressed that the eventual end customer will work with the resellers to obtain local support and on-site installation. The company generally offers free training via the Web, but also offers on-site training, which costs $5,000 for a two-day course for up to five people.

XRoads offers a three-tier channel program with Agent, Reseller and Preferred Reseller levels. Agents garner a 7 percent commission for any sales lead and a 10 percent commission for five or more leads in a given quarter. The Reseller level earns a 20 percent initial discount and then a 30 percent discount after five units or $10,000 in sales per quarter. Preferred Resellers initially get a 35 percent discount, plus lead referrals from XRoads.

Pre- and post-sales support is provided to all resellers, and the company offers to work closely with all new resellers to introduce them to the product from both a sales and support point of view. Partners are offered 30-day free installation support, with extended support contracts available for their customers at the following prices: Silver Annual Support, $600; Gold Annual Support, $1,200; and Platinum Annual Support, $3,500 (24x7 on-call dedicated support engineer).

The company provides more than sufficient documentation for integrators to quickly get up and running. Although it is always difficult to create real-world environments during in-house testsespecially those that stress bandwidth performance bottlenecksit is safe to say that the EdgePro performed admirably in the CRN Test Center Labs. The device, which is ideal for large distributed enterprises, provides a tremendous opportunity for VARs to take control of the edge of their customers' networks, and creates service, management and support opportunities for VARs. The 2500 series is available immediately from authorized XRoads resellers and service providers worldwide. The EdgePro-2500 is priced from $2,594 and comes with a three-year warranty.