Software vendor Silver Peak has created a new type of intelligent wide area network (WAN) fabric, Unity, which aims to unite the public cloud with enterprise networks.

According to Silver Peak, Unity improves on previous models of WAN optimization by correlating information on cloud services and Internet conditions.

It then uses this data to route traffic more intelligently over a secure, optimal path.

By keeping Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) traffic on the Unity fabric, connectivity to the cloud can be monitored and controlled, which creates a more consistent SaaS performance, according to the vendor.

The Unity fabric can be created by installing Silver Peak software in data centers, branch offices and cloud interconnection hubs.

The fabric, a network overlay, controls and accelerates connectivity to any combination of enterprise services, IaaS resources and SaaS applications.

Each Silver Peak agent on the Unity fabric reports back to Silver Peak’s new Cloud Intelligence service, which aggregates constantly changing information about cloud providers and Internet weather.

Unity then uses this information, along with calculations from each agent, to constantly work out the best route for data traffic across the cloud.

The whole system is orchestrated by Silver Peak’s Global Management System (GMS).

According to Silver Peak’s CEO David Hughes most enterprises use dozens of SaaS services, but their IT staff have no idea what happens to the traffic once it leaves their own wide area network.

This means they can’t troubleshoot problems or optimize applications the way they would on their own network.

“CIOs don’t want to be responsible for performance they can’t control,” Hughes said.

“The use of SaaS will only increase as enterprises shift computing workloads to the cloud.”

Hughes said by giving data a complete map of cloud-driven networks or data centers and applying new routing intelligence, service provision will be a much more precise science and every SaaS application can get the best possible connectivity.