NetEx HyperIP Beer Bottle Demo from TFD5

Recorded at Tech Field Day 5 on February 11, 2011, the NetEx presentation by Bob MacIntyre and Nancy Golio showcased their HyperIP software’s capabilities in WAN acceleration using a memorable beer bottle analogy. The presenters began by providing background on NetEx, a company that spun out of StorageTek in 1999 and is based in Minneapolis. They highlighted the company’s focus on enterprise server software and WAN optimization, specifically targeting disaster recovery (DR) applications, backup, and large data transfers. The presenters emphasized that HyperIP is designed to optimize data movement between data centers, ensuring timely and reliable delivery of mission-critical data.

The core of the presentation revolved around explaining the challenges of latency and packet loss in wide area networks (WANs) and how HyperIP addresses these issues. Using a creative analogy involving beer bottles, the presenters illustrated the inefficiencies of traditional TCP/IP protocols over WANs. In the analogy, beer bottles represented data packets, and the process of passing them along a line of people demonstrated the delays and potential losses that occur in a WAN environment. HyperIP mitigates these issues by terminating TCP connections locally, aggregating data packets, and using UDP for transmission between HyperIP appliances. This approach allows HyperIP to maintain high throughput and minimize the impact of latency and packet loss, effectively keeping the data “pipe” full and ensuring efficient data transfer.

The technical details of HyperIP were further elaborated, highlighting its deployment as a virtual machine that requires minimal resources and can be easily integrated into existing networks. The software uses advanced flow control mechanisms based on network capacity, round-trip time, and receiver rate feedback to optimize data transfer. HyperIP also supports features like compression, selective retransmission, and rate limiting, making it suitable for various network environments, including those with high packet loss. The presentation concluded with examples of HyperIP’s effectiveness in real-world scenarios, such as improving data transfer for online gaming companies and working seamlessly with data deduplication solutions. Overall, the demonstration effectively conveyed how HyperIP enhances WAN performance, ensuring reliable and efficient data movement across geographically dispersed locations.