To secure and recover important files and data, more data center-to-data center environments (or branch office-to-data center environments) are using WAN-based backup and data replication (DR). WAN optimization is now a critical part of data protection environments because it can substantially reduce the time it takes to replicate data, perform backups, and recover data. Backup and replication over the WAN ensures that you can protect data safely at a distance from the primary site, but it can also introduce new performance challenges. To meet these performance challenges, Riverbed provides hardware and software capabilities that help data protection environments in the following ways: