text:
'My parents didn't just bring me home from the hospital, they bought me from the hospital': a donor conceived woman speaks out against surrogacy
Don't repeat what happened to us
On March 5 the Senate Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs held a roundtable on surrogacy. Myf Cummerford was conceived in 1980 using an anonymous sperm donor, part of the AI program at the Royal Woman's Hospital. She wants the committee to consider the experience of herself and thousands like her.
Myf Cummerford
I'm a donor conceived person and a mother.
The sperm used to conceive me was sold for $20 in 1977. My parents didn't just bring me home from the hospital, they bought me from the hospital.
While it might make us feel better to pay Australian women for their wombs and reproductive capacity instead of disadvantaged women overseas, it is no less exploitative. The only difference will be that the economic, social and psychological circumstances that lead an Australian woman to offer herself to the surrogacy market will be much less visible.
We are not paying a woman for her time and inconvenience. We are paying her first and foremost for the child; the risk that she undertakes and the effects on her physical and mental health are secondary issues.
There is a good reason prostitutes don't have sex with strangers for free. And there is a good reason few women are prepared to be altruistic surrogates.
Compensation acts as the primary incentive for the woman to engage in providing a product for the consumer, however the true price of that product can never be paid or valued in monetary terms. The long term, omnipresent (often quiet and unacknowledged) subsequent loss incurred is borne not only by the woman but her existing family and ultimately the innocent child she delivers.
Why are we rewarding the people who choose to break the current domestic law by exploring permitting and regulating commercial surrogacy here?
If the only real answer to that question is because people are going to do it anyway then we should also legalise human trafficking, slavery, child prostitution and all the other practices that commodify human beings and their bodies. No one is going to die because they don't get the baby they want, but someone might if they do, indeed they already have.
It's entirely possible that by opening up a commercial surrogacy market here the overseas market will respond by cutting the cost of using a surrogate there. Which will do nothing to stop people using "cheap" surrogates and only make it even worse for those women (and their families). Let alone what that would mean for the child created.
We should not be sanitising this practice, we should be sanctioning it. I'm sure the exponents of commercial surrogacy attending the roundtable (Committee's report and transcripts) discussion today will make a florid, superficially reasonable case for permitting commercial surrogacy in Australia. I sincerely hope you don't listen to them.
Myf's bio: In 2001 after being told of my DC status I searched for my donor and was ultimately successful in meeting him (and establishing an ongoing relationship) thanks to an article in The Australian newspaper. I have been actively involved in advocacy in this area for 14 years, primarily for the people created via these practices but also donors, surrogates and parents because their interests are also being exploited. I'm an atheist, feminist, democratic socialist, human rights and equality supporting realist who is just yet to hear an argument convincing me any of this is a good idea.
The 2015 National Conference for Donor Conceived People will be held in Melbourne June 27. More details.
See also:
'Misconceptions', Sarah Dingle, Good Weekend (photo SMH)
'Mother Erasure: How the global surrogacy industry discards birth mothers', MTR, The Age, Sun Herald
'Donor kids must not be forgotten', MTR, Sunday Herald Sun
'Surrogacy, Reproductive Prostitution and Child Trafficking', Kajsa Ekis Ekman, MTR


text:
Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Time of Poss.
Senior wide receiver Jake Spalik (Johnson City, NY/Johnson City) caught a pair of fourth quarter touchdown passes to help The College at Brockport Football team nearly come back from a 20-0 deficit but the Golden Eagles ran out of time and Rowan University won a 20-16 decision in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) opener Saturday on Bob Boozer Field at Eunice Kennedy Shriver Stadium in Brockport.
Rowan (3-1 Overall, 2-0 NJAC) scored on the first drive of the game for the early 7-0 lead and neither team was able to score again in the first half.
In the third quarter, the Profs added to their lead with a pair of touchdowns but missed the second extra point attempt and held a 2-0 lead entering the fourth quarter.
At the end of the third quarter, Brockport (1-3, 0-1) started a 12-play drive that ended early in the fourth quarter as sophomore Tyler Stoldt (Alden, NY/Alden) completed a nine-yard scoring pass to Spalik on a fourth down play to put Brockport on the board.
The drive ignited the Brockport sideline and the defensive unit responded by forcing a three-and-out drive giving the ball back to Stoldt and the offense.
Stoldt completed five passes in the ensuing drive and also ran for a first down scrambling on a 4th-and-10 play for 11 yards and a critical first down. Three plays later with a 1st-and-goal situation from the six yard line, Stoldt found Spalik in the back corner of the end zone and the senior made the diving catch and kept a foot in bounds for his second touchdown of the quarter cutting the Rowan lead to 20-14.
Rowan followed with an eight-play drive that moved all the way to the Brockport 20-yard line before freshman linebacker Jake Brickler (Hilton, NY/Hilton) blitzed up the middle on the fourth-down play sacking the quarterback and giving the ball back to the Golden Eagles with 3:40 left on the clock.
Stoldt and the offense came back on the field with a chance to take the lead. On the second play of the drive, Stoldt threw a sideline pass that was caught by freshman Nate Wilkinson (Elma, NY/Iroquois) for a 29-yard gain. Wilkinson stretched out to tip the ball up into the air and then made a diving catch before rolling out of bounds.
The Golden Eagles moved the ball to the Rowan 16-yard line and facing a fourth down situation; Stoldt looked to the end zone again but was intercepted giving the ball back to Rowan with 1:35 to play.
After taking a knee on the first three downs of the drive, Rowan quarterback Paul Hamersma ran out of the back of the end zone for a safety making the score 20-16 with one second left on the clock. Rowan kicked the free kick to Darryl Thompson (Rochester, NY/Marshall) and three different Golden Eagles exchanged possession on laterals before the play was stopped at the Brockport 32-yard line ending the game.
Wilkinson and Eric Malave (Brooklyn, NY/Canarsie) each had seven receptions for Brockport and Spalik finished with five catches for 66 yards. Stoldt was 26-for-48 passing for 247 yards and two touchdowns but also threw two interceptions. Defensively, Cortland Haines (Jamestown, NY/Jamestown) led the way with 10 tackles, Colby Morabito (Rochester, NY/Hilton) added eight stops and broke up two passes while Brickler finished with seven tackles and two sacks.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Gladstone Grow Op / Jonathon Groenweg / The Nature of Urbanity
Jonathan Groeneweg holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Documentary Media from Ryerson University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Calgary. Groeneweg has exhibited within Canada and abroad, teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, and developed a strong community-based arts practice via various educational, artist-in-residence, and outreach programs.
Groeneweg's ongoing series, The Nature of Urbanity, combines academic research and artistic production in the form of large scale aerial photo-panoramic composites of urban vegetable gardens to expose and explore 'Nature' as a product of culture.
GROW OP will be on public display at the Gladstone April 24 – 27, 2014
Curated by Victoria Taylor, and featuring 26 new projects, Grow Op 2014 is the Gladstone Hotel's annual alternative landscape and urban design event, celebrating innovative ideas and conceptual responses to sustainable placemaking across a broad range of creative practices.
For press and media inquiries please contact the Gladstone Hotel's Managing Director – Artistic Projects, Britt Welter-Nolan


text:
High Heels, Massages and Mani-Pedis: How We're Spending SELF Day!
Need a little me time? Sixty-nine percent of you feel guilty spending a day doing just what you want, a SELF poll finds. It's time to lose that guilt! People who indulge in activities they love are healthier, less depressed and even thinner, research shows. And feeling good might even help you live longer -- a new study from University College London found that people with high "positive affect" had a lower mortality rate than those who weren't as happy.
We know, you're stressed and busy, but here's permission: November 1 is Self Day, your holiday. Here's how we're giving ourselves the nurturing we deserve -- read on and be inspired!
--I will be treating myself on SELF Day to my first outing at the Pond at Bryant Park. I love to ice-skate before work! It is the best way to start the day.
Wendy Marcus, Copy Director
--I'm going to NOT have lunch at my desk and I'm also going to take a brisk walk through Central Park.
Sandra Wilson-Hess, Bookings Editor
--Ways I treat myself: Massage! New shoes -- high heels! Getting in bed early to read my SELF magazine! :)
Sarah-Jane Bedwell R.D., Eat Like Me Blogger
--Massage, massage, massage. And not just a walk-in chair massage, but the full works, where I can bask in the plunge pool and relaxation room for a good 2-plus hours. I'll also allow myself to buy a dress or shoes that AREN'T on sale. I so often find my wardrobe choices are determined by what's on sale, but it's so freeing to not have to stick to the overcrowded racks of picked-over items. And I'll let myself sleep in.
Tula Karras, Contributing Editor
--Not surprisingly, this fitness editor likes to work out. So whenever I'm feeling stressed or just in a need of a little "me time," I love heading to the gym for a major sweat sesh! Nothing says "today is my day" like a killer playlist. So whenever I need a boost I create a new mini playlist and crank up the volume while I'm getting ready in the morning!
Bari Lieberman, Fit Like Us Blogger
--I'll spend the evening not returning personal emails, calls from my mother or tidying up the apartment. Instead, I'm going to camp out on the couch and read a new book. It's a little oddball: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. My boyfriend said it was fascinating!
Marissa Stephenson, Fitness Editor
--My favorite way to treat myself: A super warm bath with Mistral lavender, wild blackberry or mango bubble bath followed by a yummy bathrobe, takeout sushi and trashy TV!
Nora Zelevansky, Fit Like UsBlogger
--If we're having a stressful day, we take 10 minutes each to do mini shoulder and head massages in the office -- it helps us relax, reset and be more productive afterward! We also meet up once a year at Bliss spa in NYC to get facials or massages, usually during the busy holiday time when things can get a bit stressful. And a good romantic comedy (OK, good or bad ... we don't really care) and some popcorn always seems to feel like a treat.
SELF contributing experts, Stephanie Clarke, R.D., and Willow Jarosh, R.D.
--I like to treat myself by by staying in and enjoying a home-cooked meal, a glass of wine, a game of Scrabble and a few episodes of Breaking Bad.
Lindsey Palmer, Psychology Editor
--Assistant Digital Producer Katherine Bellando and I are going to a BYOB painting class we signed up for ages ago. It is a good way to spend time with a friend and do something new and fun. Plus we will walk home with a new (and hopefully awesome!) painting for our apartments to remind us of our day!
Lindsey Benoit, Senior Public Relations Manager
--My ideal day of treating myself: a Spin class, a mani-pedi and relaxing with my favorite TV shows on the DVR.
Allison Baker, Associate Editor
--I love going to my favorite Italian restaurant, sitting at the bar with a glass of wine, pulling out my Kindle and reading, sipping, having some pasta and just taking in the bar scene.
Paula Derrow, Articles Director
--I do a hair mask once a week! It feels like there are a million other ways I can spend that time, but hopping out of the shower and loading a mask onto wet hair (and sitting around in a towel until I can rinse it out) forces me to lay low for 20 minutes -- something I don't do often enough!
Alexandra Samuel, Associate Beauty Editor
Need some ideas on how to spend your SELF day? Check out these 16 ways to treat yourself for every budget (and time frame!). Plus, our take care of you guide is all about just that- get the best destressing moves and the foods that'll fuel and nourish your bod.
Related Links:
For daily health tips follow SELF on Facebook and Twitter. Get SELF on your iPad!


text:
Sea otters hold hands so they don't float away from each other while they sleep. Not only does that look adorable, it is also very good advice. Holding hands can be incredibly bonding and has affected my life in so many different ways.
My husband spontaneously slipped his hand into mine and gave it a little squeeze. I squeezed back while we enjoyed a mid afternoon stroll with our dog. As we walked I enjoyed how secure and safe it felt. This simple gesture symbolized a connection between us and it felt good.
Holding hands brings joy. In grade school I happily held hands with my best friend as we ran toward the swings on the playground. The first time I held hands with a boy it felt intimate and awkwardly thrilling at the same time. I remember when my children were learning to take their first steps. Their tiny hands grasped so tightly around my fingers totally trusting me to provide support as they toddled on wobbly legs toward this exciting new milestone.
Holding hands make words unnecessary. My sister stood bravely beside her son's body as I calmly took her hand in mine. It signified a moment of support and an attempt to comfort as I tried so hard to let her know, without saying a word, she wasn't alone. (John had passed away very unexpectedly from a blood clot. He was a young father so full of humor and quick wit which made it extra hard to say goodbye.) I remember how she tightly grasped my hand as she struggled to comprehend that terribly sad moment. A few years ago I held my mom's hand as she breathed her final breaths of life. Mom was unconscious, but just in case she was somehow aware, I wanted her to know we were all there to support her through to the end as she always did for us. I also remember sitting by my dad's body the morning he died. I placed his hand in mine, held it to my cheek, kissed it one last time and gently held onto it as my siblings and I said our private goodbyes.
Holding hands breeds intimacy. My husband and I often drift off to sleep at night as we hold hands. We eventually let go and roll away, but what a sweet way to end our day. Holding our grandchildren's hands as we walk together are some of my most cherished moments. I treasure looking down at their faces as they glance up at me while we share silly jokes or serious talks about Legos or princesses. Saying grace together as a couple or when the family gathers is a truly special time.
Holding hands with a stranger can give you courage. There was a moment in my life when I received difficult news and a stranger took hold of my hand and held it firmly as if they were trying to transmit their strength as well as comfort. They will never know what that meant to me.
In good times, in bad times, in times of comfort, in times of support, in times of closeness, nothing quite compares (except maybe a warm hug) to reaching out and wrapping your fingers around another's.
Holding hands is such a powerful gift and I can't believe how often it has been underappreciated or gone unnoticed in my life. I am taking a lesson from the sea otter and will extend my hand to others more often in an effort to keep the important people in my life from drifting away from me! What memories do you have while holding someone's hand?


text:
I took Cairo to a decoy seminar in WV last weekend. I left the bulldogs home to lay around and get fat. I am sure they loved it. But I thought I would share some pictures of my fuzzy pocket rocket.
Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy.
furever_pit wrote:We are ALL partial to Gator.
He's such a goober. I wish I could show you guys his personality, but my words will never do him justice.
I love that funny man.
Return to Four Legged, Finned and Feathered Family Members
Users browsing this forum: No registered users


text: Our specialised quote builder makes it easy to build your playground to budget. Simply explore our product categories and add the products to your quote. You can view your quote at any time from the top navigation bar where you can then send to us to arrange discussion. Happy shopping!


text:
The former girlfriend of actor Jim Carrey has died from an apparent suicide, the Los Angeles coroner said on Tuesday.
Cathriona White, 30, was found dead in a Los Angeles apartment on Monday at around 8:40 p.m., assistant chief coroner Ed Winter confirmed to NBC Owned Television Stations.
"I am shocked and deeply saddened by the passing of my sweet Cathriona," Carrey said in a statement provided by his publicist. "She was a truly kind and delicate Irish flower, too sensitive for this soil, to whom loving and being loved was all that sparkled. My heart goes out to her family and friends and to everyone who loved and cared about her. We have all been hit with a lightning bolt."
U.S. & World
White's death was reported to authorities as a suicide but a final determination will be made after an autopsy is performed, Winter said.
A drug overdose was suspected because several pills were found near her body, Winter told Reuters.
Carrey and White dated on and off. According to TMZ, White and Carrey, 53, met in 2012 and dated briefly but rekindled their romance in May before splitting up again last week.
Carrey has been married twice. In 1987 he wed Comedy Store waitress Melissa Womer; they stayed together for eight years and have a 28-year-old daughter, Jane Erin Carrey. He married Lauren Holly in 1996 but the couple divorced a year later. Carrey was also involved with his "Me Myself and Irene" co-star Renee Zellweger, to whom he was briefly engaged. In 2005 he began a five-year relationship with Jenny McCarthy.


text:
I'm very satisfied with your service. I received my order and had taken them for a while. and it's original. I see the good effect. At first I was not sure, there are a lot of companys out there. I was very lucky to find you. Thank you. I will definitely recommend you to other people.
Submitted By: Yolanda Sanchez
Location: Providence, RI.
I'm happy I found this site where we can get the authentic pills. Thanks to this site people who have helped me. Now, I want to buy more for my friends and sisters. And hope we can achieve our goals.
Submitted By: Nyellah Kamara
Location: Boston, MA


text:
FARMINGTON — The library will be closed Monday, Nov. 12 for Veterans Day, and Wednesday, Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. and Thursday Nov. 22 for Thanksgiving Day. We will be open both the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Farmington Film Society
On Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. we are excited to be able to bring you Moonrise Kingdom, a charming film by Wes Anderson. Set on an island off the coast of New England and partly filmed in New Hampshire, the story takes place during the summer of 1965 when two 12-year-olds fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. Bruce Willis plays the local sheriff. Edward Norton is a Khaki Scout troop leader. Bill Murray and Frances McDormand portray the young girl's parents. The cast also includes Jason Schwartzman and introduces Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as the boy and girl. This movie had a limited theater run and we feel was one of the best films of 2012. Don't miss this chance to see it on our big screen!
Next month we will be presenting the classic film The World of Henry Orient, an enchanting film set in New York in the 1960s during the holiday season about the crush two young girls develop on an avant-garde concert pianist played by Peter Sellers in one of his more unusual roles. This film is a gem and was not made widely available in local theaters; so be sure to mark the date. Please note: These movies contain adult content and language. A parent or guardian must accompany children under the age of 18. Please call for more information 755-2944, ext. 2 or e-mail email@example.com.
Book Club
The next Book Club is on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 12:30 p.m. Take note Book Clubbers! This month we will be meeting on Saturday afternoon because of Thanksgiving. We will be discussing the biography of Leni Riefenstahl by Jurgen Trimborn — the controversial woman photographer/film-maker/propaganda machine who helped to shape the image of Hitler and the Third Reich with films like Triumph of the Will. We hope to follow this book with Eric Larson's In the Garden of Beasts in December.
Writers Group:
The Goodwin Library Writers' Group will meet on Wednesday, at 6 p.m.
Join us for this session and bring your holiday/winter-themed poems/stories/what have you/ if you would like. Remember, if you are a writer of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, memoirs, songs (or cartoons!) or anything else that you would like to share we are a criticism-free zone and happy to support new or established writers equally, so don't be shy, come on down and join in the fun.
NH State Library note
Inter-Library Loan Services: Due to continuing server issues with the State Library system, we are experiencing ongoing interruptions in our ability to search and reserve Inter-Library Loan materials. We ask that you please allow extra time for materials that you are requesting so that you are not disappointed.
Art display
Our visiting art show sponsored by the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts has been displayed on our main floor all summer. We are inviting everyone who has enjoyed our art display to revisit the Library and pick up a guide to our wall hangings. You will be surprised to learn that many of these beautiful pieces have been created by local residents using a variety of mediums and techniques.
Children & Young Adult News
Get onboard for the Polar Express on Thursday, Nov. 29 at 6 p.m. in the Valley View Community School multi-purpose room: Join us for this favorite Family Holiday Event. Come in your pajamas and fuzzy slippers and enjoy our holiday stories and songs followed by cookies and hot chocolate. Please make a note of our new date and location. FMI please call 755-2944, ext. 3.
Reading with Ava
This is on Thursdays, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Sign up to read to our wonderful therapy dog Ava. Snuggle down in one of our beanbags with this beautiful soft gentle dog for 20 minutes of undivided attention. Please call or email (755-2944, ext 3; firstname.lastname@example.com) to make an appointment today!
For more information on our Children's and Teen Programs check out our blogs and Face Book!
Children's Room Blog, http://goodwinkidsblog.blogspot.com.
For more news, check out our teens' blog at http://goodwinteensblog.blogspot.com/ and "friend" Goodwin Librarians on Facebook!
Reminder: Our Historical/Genealogical collection is a secured collection and requires the assistance of staff for access. Due to staffing limitations, we are unable to assist patrons on a drop-in basis. Please e-mail your requests to email@example.com and include your contact information. We will make every effort to find your information prior to your visit.
If you have a library card, you may access our database Heritage Quest from the library and/or home. We also offer ProQuest; however, this database can be used only in the Library. Visit www.goodwinlibrary.org and click the "Catalog" tab to access this information.
Titles to watch out for
This month the Militant Recommender recommends Ironskin by Tina Connolly. It is a magical steampunk fantasy Jane Eyre-like story that from the first page draws the reader into the original world which the author brings to vivid life. Jane Eliot was a survivor. There was a war, a war between the populace and the fey. Jane has been scarred in the war and must keep it contained behind the "ironskin" mask that covers one side of her face. Scarred as she is, she possess a quick and sardonic wit and a sense of adventure so when she sees an ad for a governess position for a child "born during the war", she decides to give it a go and accepts the position. If you are in the mood for a dark and romantic story be sure to check out Ironskin!
The Tiger Café is now open at Grace Place! Find us next to Farmington House of Pizza (and almost directly across from the library). If you are a middle or high school student who needs a place to hang out, or something to do, drop into the Tiger Café for snacks, games, and yes, even homework help on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3 to 5 p.m. There is no cost to join, and snacks and drinks are free. FMI email email@example.com.
Call for drivers
The North Bus needs your help! Coast's North Bus program provides door-to-door twice-weekly bus service from Farmington to Rochester businesses for errands and appointments. They are in dire need of volunteer drivers (who will be trained) to continue this much needed service. FMI please call Jeff Donald (743-5777, ext. 120) or check out www.coastbus.org/northbus.html.
Goodwin Library's November news
FARMINGTON — The library will be closed Monday, Nov. 12 for Veterans Day, and Wednesday, Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. and Thursday Nov. 22 for Thanksgiving Day. We will be open both the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving.


text:
Japanese Lolita Party Crashers Prove Fashionistas Can't Tell Asians Apart
A trio of Japanese Lolitas crashed Tom Ford's fashion show by saying one of them was Japanese Vogue editor Mitsuko Watanabe. I mean, maybe if they said they were with Gwen Stefani—but confusing this with this?
More power to the Harajuku girls, though.
Another source added: "The girls were crashing the hottest parties all over town, saying they were the A Girls, a pop group from Japan. They wore pinafores, bustiers and platform boots, fake feather eyelashes and had 'stick your finger in the light socket' hairstyles."
Do you know the mysterious Lolita party crashers? Tell us about them. [P6, image via]


text:
Move data fast
As the WAN optimization market has matured, vendors have been competing on features such as advanced compression techniques and traffic management, including load balancing and protocol optimization for Web-based apps. But make sure the new or enhanced product features are truly priorities for your environment and test them thoroughly before buying.
| WAN acceleration appliances are a much less expensive way of increasing bandwidth for remote sites than buying beefier transmission lines.
High on Thomas Fenady's priority list at Activision Publishing Inc. has been improving file-transfer speeds for traffic over the WAN. Fenady is senior director of IT at the Santa Monica, CA, video entertainment company, which publishes coveted titles such as Guitar Hero, the game that gives everyone a chance to rock like Jimi Hendrix.
While the main data center is at the company's California headquarters, Activision's IT users are spread across 67 offices on four continents. In Fenady's favorite example of how an international video entertainment firm can pummel its network, the Dublin, Ireland-based testers and designers working on Call of Duty routinely generate approximately 200GB of data each day.
That's because the video game, which lets players fight World War II armies, is published in 16 languages.
"We'd be sending an 8gig file 16 times," explains Fenady. "We were getting 3megs per second on an E3 line, and we were able to tune that to get about 8megs per second." Then Activision joined a growing list of companies using WAN optimization products as a way of improving business continuity and application performance. With Riverbed Technology Inc.'s Steelhead appliance, says Fenady, "we started getting about 34megs per second. We were filling up the pipe."
Activision has about 7,000 users (a number that tripled recently after the firm merged with Vivendi Games to form Activision Blizzard). His users "don't see a jump from 8megs to 34megs," says Fenady. "What they see is a game-build transfer that could take eight hours before and now takes 30 minutes."
The need to improve application response times is just one of the factors driving the WAN optimization market, which grew out of the old wide-area file services (WAFS) sector. Interest is currently being stoked by the following IT trends, each of which is inexorably linked to both network and storage systems.
"The standard approach [to accommodating increased WAN use] is to overprovision the amount of bandwidth you need," he says. But purchasing more bandwidth can be very expensive. According to Whiteley, a company with an international E3 line going into Bangalore, India, for example, might pay up to $40,000 each month for a private link. But WAN optimization products, for a fraction of that cost, reduce bandwidth costs by reserving bandwidth for priority traffic and using data-reduction technologies.
"The bad news is that [WAN optimization] is still a nascent technology, so it comes with limitations," says Whiteley. These products require plenty of initial testing and careful deployment to avoid problems with reliability and scalability, he adds. "You can't just pick the vendor you have the best relationship with or the one with the best price." (See "What to test," below.)
Deployment options
Getting the most out of a WAN optimization product, says Fenady, comes down to deciding how to deploy it. The leading WAN optimization vendors support two classes of deployment: in-path and out-of-path (see "In-path vs. Out-of-path WAN optimization," below).
In-path deployments require placing the WAN device between the switch and the router. The appliance is inserted in-line between the WAN router and the Ethernet switch on the LAN side of the network. Out-of-path deployments require reconfiguring routers, and appliances are deployed in each office of a distributed enterprise network, typically behind the WAN router. Fenady chose to deploy his Riverbed appliance in-path, he says, "since the Riverbed has a failover pass-through. If the unit dies, there's no network interruption; we tested this extensively."
The leading WAN optimization vendors support both classes of deployment, and customers choose their deployment based on infrastructure, preferences, traffic flow, and the number of users and branch offices. When Cisco first introduced its WAN optimizer product, it was offered in only out-of-path deployments. Mark Weiner, Cisco's director of market management for data center solutions, says the company's Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) software (that's loaded onto an appliance) is now offered in-path as well in response to customer demand.
Jeremy Gill is CIO at Pittsburgh-based Michael Baker Corp., a survey and engineering firm with 4,200 employees and a network that supports 50 domestic and eight international offices. The company, whose work includes flood-plain mapping for federal agencies like FEMA, ran into a problem after it deployed the ProjectWise content management app. At the same time, Gill was concentrating on consolidating 15TB of corporate data to a main site. "As that data center grew and we consolidated file servers, we realized we were going to have to increase our WAN acceleration," he says. Gill had a "ton of Cisco ISR router lines," so choosing Cisco's WAN optimization product and deploying it out-of-path made sense to him.
Gill is an IT veteran who was never crazy about the WAFS products of yesteryear. "To be honest," he says, "I'm not a fan of file acceleration. If there's a piece of hardware that will do it, I'd rather do it at the hardware level." In the end, Gill wound up with the kind of WAN optimization ROI he was looking for: $4,000 in monthly bandwidth savings, increased remote-worker billable hours and centralized storage.
Early on, Gill was unhappy with Cisco's reporting tool, but he says the company has made strides in recent releases. "There are more out-of-the-box reports now compared to us having to pull the data and run our own manipulation of it," he says. "That was taking 20 hours a month." But the numbers, he notes, are impressive. A six-month snapshot showed ProjectWise accelerated by 60%. Gill is also looking forward to the improved video streaming in Cisco's most recent release, he says. In the older version, all 20 users in a remote office would receive their own video stream, sent across the WAN from the media server in the company's main data center. A newer version of WAAS pulls only one stream from the media server, which is then sent to the 20 users from the WAAS device in a remote office. In the case of small WAN links, such as T1, which a lot of Gill's remote offices use, "it can't support a stream of 20 users at 384K, but it can easily support one," explains Gill. "That will help us significantly. We have folks in remote offices, logging into Web-based meetings, that kind of break the bandwidth when it comes to video."
Jeff Post is network manager at EDC Inc., an international nonprofit that does work in 35 countries, and has programs ranging from health care to education and grassroots economic initiatives. For Post, that means heavy WAN use, especially between the nonprofit's three regional offices in Newton, MA; Washington, D.C.; and New York City.
Post became a Silver Peak Systems Inc. customer in February when EDC began a data center consolidation project. "Our need [for a WAN product] came when we outgrew our space, power and HVAC supply," says Post.
Reducing WAN traffic
EDC is mostly a Cisco shop, but Post says he was open to various WAN vendors when he began looking at WAN optimization products; Post says the Cisco product he tested didn't work so well with the 200 or so Macs in his shop. In the end, he chose Silver Peak and says "they didn't accelerate my Mac traffic either, but they didn't break it"; Post also says Silver Peak told him more Mac capabilities are on its roadmap.
Damon Ennis, Silver Peak's VP of customer support and product management, says Silver Peak's Mac acceleration was limited at the time to a certain feature. "We were able to accelerate file copies, but we weren't able to accelerate what we call directory browsing specifically for Apple Macs; that has since been remedied," he explains. Cisco's Weiner says the firm has plenty of customers using Cisco's WAAS for Macs; he noted a recent enhancement to Cisco's WAAS, an HTTP adapter that aids Mac traffic.
Post chose an out-of-path deployment, and reconfigured his Cisco Catalyst 3750 series switches for policy-based routing so they would send data to the Silver Peak appliances. "We didn't consider doing it in-path," he explains. "We have tried, as much as possible, to not have a single point of failure in our network design. We have two switches in each location handling the routing of the data. I feel the out-of-path deployment offers more flexibility."
Post chose to implement policy-based routing (PBR) redirection so the appliance intercepts only those packets that have been redirected to it. It accelerates traffic flows that match its Access Control Lists (ACLs); all other traffic passes through the appliance unmodified. But Post's policy-based routing rules were too broad at the outset, which posed a problem. "Originally, we said we wanted everything to go over it. Well, if you send everything, you wind up sending a lot of things you never intended to, such as print jobs from remote offices," he says. "Now we just lock down the IP ranges that [print jobs would send to]."
Product competition heats up
Riverbed boasts the ability to decrypt Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)-encrypted traffic, and Forrester ranked it highest overall last year for optimization techniques. Silver Peak, which received high marks for its scalability in Forrester's Q3 2007 market report, is making that a cornerstone of its product pitch, and company executives say their roadmap includes larger appliances and the ability to handle an even larger data stream.
However, users are discovering some pockets of trouble when it comes to implementing WAN optimization products and scalability tops the list, says Forrester's Whiteley. "Does it process enough TCP flows? Does it have enough on-board disk capacity? It's not just about megabits per second," he says. In general, WAN optimization products scale out (the number of devices that can be interlinked) and scale up (the amount of optimized throughput each appliance can process).
"You should test solutions that support the right throughput on the WAN connection with all of the optimization techniques turned on," says Forrester's Whiteley.
Another problem can be reliability or backing up the box, he says. "Some companies are getting burned by the fact that there aren't modular components; they aren't hot-swappable," he says. In one example, a Toronto company with Bangalore, India-based developers discovered it had reached 80% WAN bandwidth utilization, "which is almost catastrophic" says Whiteley. The company installed WAN optimization appliances on either end for reduction in overall traffic and cut its WAN bandwidth utilization to approximately 40%. That worked out great ... for a while.
"Over time, that utilization crept back up to 60%," says Whiteley. The "creeping" of utilization--in this case, from 40% to 60%--is very common, he adds.
But without the WAN appliance, the firm is operating at 120% of link capacity and must be prepared in case the appliance fails by installing "high-availability pairs or trying to get solutions with higher reliability like modular hardware, in-service upgrades and hot-swappable components," says Whiteley. (That's the strategy Gill at Michael Baker Corp. applied.) Riverbed's Saldich says users don't need to back up every box with another. "Let's say you have 100 branches," he says, and one big box in the data center. "If the one in the data center is deployed serially or in parallel, that's a pretty reliable deployment," adds Saldich.
Prices for WAN optimization products vary depending on network size and the number of sites. A good starting point is approximately $50,000 for a major location such as your data center, and $15,000 to $20,000 for branch sites (pricing for remote locations vary).
Brian Babineau, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, Milford, MA, predicts that WAN optimization products will be priority budget items for IT shops this year and next. The cost of buying more bandwidth, at a time when IT shops are under increasing pressure to restrict expenses, makes WAN acceleration products easy to rationalize, he explains.
"We've talked to a lot of people who have purchased WAN optimization solutions and we haven't had one of them say 'Hey, this stuff didn't work out for us,''' says Babineau. "That's pretty unusual. A quick ROI is what counts right now."