A few years ago Quocirca reviewed the deployment of Microsoft ISA server by The Kensington and Chelsea NHS Trust in all its remote surgeries and clinics. Microsoft was keen to promote the fact that ISA Server (ISA stands for Internet Security and Acceleration) had won over specialist appliance based offerings for network acceleration.

One of the main reasons that the Trust went the Microsoft route was the need to implement other services on the same device as the network acceleration software. Alongside ISA Server this included having a local copy of Microsoft Active Directory, the ability to store syslogs and to add security software at some stage. To implement this, the Trust's implementation partner, Hytec Information Security, package all the software on to a standard x86 based server running Windows Server 2003 and delivered it just like a pre-configured appliance to each remote location.

Were the same choice be being made today Hytec might be able to make do with a single web acceleration appliance from the self proclaimed market leader—Riverbed.

Riverbed's network acceleration appliances, which it calls Steelheads, run its own proprietary operating system, RiOS. But, earlier in 2009 Riverbed added what it calls the "RiOS Server Platform" (RSP) to all its Steelhead appliances. RSP is VMware deployment on RiOS that enables Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or 2008 to be installed and run local services such as Active Directory. It costs extra to switch RSP on, but when done the Steelhead becomes more than an appliance—it's a server.

Quocirca believes that this a good move by Riverbed—it avoids getting caught up in a proprietary system that needs to be kept competitive against all the other vendors and allows customer to benefit from existing Microsoft skills to add functionality to their Steelheads. The move also opens up the unified services appliance market for Riverbed allowing it to extend its offering in all sorts of ways through OEM agreements with other software vendors.