WANs, VoIP & Convergence Enterprise All-Stars Read the latest WhitePaper - Wireless LAN Virtualization: Twice the Network at Half the Cost

Guide to the '06 All-Stars Winners alphabetical listing WINNERS BY TECHNOLOGY Applications | LANs & Routers | Network Management | OS, Servers & Data Center | Security | Storage | WAN, VoIP & Convergence | Wireless & Mobility WINNERS BY INDUSTRY Construction | Education | Financial Services | Government | Healthcare | Manufacturing | Media | Retail | Travel/Transportation | Utilities Vendors to the All-Stars

Chris Finucane recently received an unsolicited e-mail from a user who wanted to know why his files were unexpectedly flying over the WAN. The question - which came from someone who often complained about network sluggishness - surprised Finucane. "If users notice the difference without you asking, you know you have something good," says Finucane, who is CTO in the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In this case, that something is WAN optimization, an advanced technology for improving application performance over the wide area. A year ago, IT began deploying Riverbed Technology's Steelhead appliances in its 85 field and 10 regional offices, including its Washington, D.C., headquarters. In the process, IT has opened the floodgates for wide-area data transfers and positioned the OIG to handle bigger and more info-intensive projects. For these reasons, the HHS OIG is a 2006 Enterprise All-Star.

In search of better WAN performance

Finucane hadn't planned on exploring using this type of technology, already having allocated his annual IT budget to other projects. Plus John Rogosky, OIG's network manager, had just finished a network upgrade, swapping out 56Kbps frame relay links for T-1s between the offices and MCI's vBNS mesh network. But the bandwidth increase

didn't deliver the performance upgrade Finucane expected. "People should have been cheering. But not a lot of notice came out of that," he says.

The OIG is a watchdog organization for HHS' 300-plus programs, which include Medicare and Medicaid. OIG auditors make sure program funds are distributed and used properly; analysts evaluate HHS programs for efficiency and effectiveness; investigators look into possible instances of fraud or abuse; and attorneys provide legal services. OIG can assess monetary penalties for violations such as false billing, as well as exclude people from participating in federal healthcare programs.