Central management becomes virtualised

Riverbed introduces CMC VE

Riverbed Technology has introduced its Central Management Console – Virtual Edition (CMC-VE) designed for managed service providers (MSPs).

CMC-VE gives MSPs a multi-tenant solution to manage multiple sets of Steelhead appliance deployments. As a result, MSPs can scale central management capabilities for their customers as they grow without purchasing and deploying new hardware.

CMC-VE is a virtualised version of the Central Management Console (CMC) appliance, which helps enterprises simplify the process of deploying, configuring and managing of Steelhead appliances.

CMC-VE runs on VMWare ESX and MSPs can run it on any existing server that has capacity.

“By introducing a multi-tenant platform and flexible licensing, MSPs can manage thousands of Steelhead appliances across multiple customer sites – all from one physical server in their data centre. In addition, CMC-VE can be deployed almost instantly when an MSP brings on a new customer – without having to deploy additional hardware,” says Christo Briedenhann, country manager: Africa at Riverbed.

“CMC-VE allows us to address managed service provider needs by providing them with the flexibility and scalability to improve their service margins and reduce operational costs.”

CMC-VE is expected to be generally available in October 2009.