We've posted a new Whitepaper that compares Nomad Enterprise to WAN Caching appliances.
You might be surprised to read that our Nomad Enterprise is actually a much better and more cost-effective solution to devices constructed solely for optimizing WAN traffic - specifically from a SMS/ConfigMgr environment standpoint. How is that possible, you may ask?
Typically people would look at WAN optimization technology to address specific issues, for example a mission critical application that is suffering from network performance latency. In this instance, an organization could choose to spend money on upgrading their WAN link or to buy a WAN optimization appliance to make the link work smarter. What may be happening however is that performance is suffering because the link is being flooded when software deployments are taking place, and it is this area that Nomad Branch has been specifically designed to address.
While WAN Caching appliances address overall network performance, Nomad specifically addresses WAN optimization in a SMS/ConfigMgr environment. In organizations where large amounts of data are flowing across sites due to software distributions and other miscelleaneous SMS/ConfigMgr services and tasks, Nomad can save you the cost and time of putting up a Distribution Point in branch offices.
The most important thing to take from this document is that Nomad Enterprise and WAN Caching Appliances cannot and should not be compared on a like for like basis. They were designed to do different tasks and the features and benefits they provide are appropriate to each task. However, if you rely on SMS or ConfigMgr in your company, Nomad Enterprise is your best bet.
Download and read the Whitepaper:
http://www.1e.com/download/WhitePapers/Nomad_and_WAN_Caching_1.6.pdf
Read the complete post at http://www.1e.com/bizblog/post/2010/09/23/New-Whitepaper-Nomad-Enterprise-WAN-Caching-Appliances.aspx