Cat has three sounds; none of them is “Meow”

Maryanne Wolf ⁽¹⁾ uses this image to illustrate the complex transformation from signs to letters to sounds to concept, that happen in the reading brain. C, A, T are three independent signs we hard-wired our brain with as the first step of learning to read, and unconsciously decode as 'letters'; each of them does not mean anything 'per se'. When we see them altogether (CAT), a decent English reader can associate the three sounds /k/, /a/, and /t/. Finally the coupling of these sounds gives birth to the conscious concept of in our mind (along with its corresponding vocalization).

Similarly, WAN governance is made of pieces that, taken separately, have totally different meaning. It starts from techniques like pattern matching, shaping, tcp ack anticipation, CIFS decoding, object caching, etc… They are the signs that, when properly decoded, become coherent 'technical features':

• Application traffic visibility
• Wan optimization
• Application acceleration
• Application performance management (APM)
• and so on.

In their turn, these 'technical features' are the 'letters' that, when linked together in the right manner (ideally by Autonomic networking) will be able to collectively deliver higher level users benefits like:

• Application SLAs
• Guarantee of user experience
• Acceleration of business applications
• Simplification of operations
• Cost reduction
• etc…

Finally, the association of these benefits within a coherent process and methodology will make appear the conscious Wan governance concept and the corresponding alignment of the network to the enterprise business and IT strategy.

Of course, one can say that all of this is far-fetched: after all, kids & cats understand each other well before being able to read, without any need of conscious steps and rational explanations that heart blinded adults need to understand their world…

(1) From Maryanne Wolf's "Proust and the Squid: the Story and Science of the Reading Brain" (again…)