branch office box (BOB)

A branch office box (BOB) is a server appliance that has been optimized to provide distributed support for simple utility functions that are required locally but are difficult to provide over a WAN. When WAN connections are unreliable, a BOB may be used as part of a local business continuation solution. When WAN connections are reliable, a BOB may not be a cost-effective alternative to using protocol wrapping solutions (like MPLS) to address WAN latency. BOBs are usually optimized for the type of protocol traffic a business uses in most communication with a central office or data center. BOBs also are optimized for the type of persistent service that may be needed locally in the event of a WAN disruption.

BOB deployment is an alternative to providing complex server support locally for necessary utility applications like:

• email
• printing
• file serving and caching
• DNS
• DHCP
• HTML
• XML
• HTTPS
• encryption and decryption