Patent ID: 8903918

Claim:
A system comprising: a processor and memory; a requesting entity; a Wide Area Network (WAN); a serving entity configured to serve an application comprising at least one of a collaborative document, a computed document generated at runtime, and a static document prepared a priori, wherein the application is configured to be shared with the requesting entity in accordance with a request therefor, wherein the serving entity and the requesting entity are configured to communicate through the WAN; and a network of a number of Point of Presence (POP) locations between the serving entity and the requesting entity, wherein the network of the number of POP locations is configured to communicate at least one of the collaborative document, the computed document, and the static document on behalf of the serving entity from a closest POP location to the serving entity to a closest POP location to the requesting entity and then onward to the requesting entity, wherein each of the number of POP locations comprises a switching engine and an edge engine implemented therein to provide a WAN optimization and an application acceleration during a communication of at least one of the collaborative document, the computed document, and the static document on behalf of the serving entity, wherein the switching engine and the edge engine are configured to enable a multi-tenancy in each of the number of POP locations, wherein a resource allocation for the switching engine and the edge engine is on a per-customer basis, wherein the switching engine and the edge engine are scalable with a number of load balancers, wherein a WAN optimization capability and an application acceleration capability of each of the number of POP locations enable a distribution of a number of tasks associated therewith across the WAN, wherein at least one of the serving entity and the requesting entity is configured to generate a secure transport data to be transmitted over a number of secure tunnels of at least one of the collaborative document, the computed document, and the static document between a number of intervening firewalls such that a traffic is routed securely through the network of the number of POP locations toward a destination, wherein the network of the number of POP locations is implemented with a multi-segment architecture, and wherein the number of secure tunnels comprises a private transport of a packet with an unaltered Internet Protocol (IP) address through at least one of a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE), an Internet Protocol Security (IPsec), a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), and a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN).