General20.05.2014

Riverbed SteelHead 8.6 adds support for Microsoft Azure

By weich

Riverbed Technology, the leader in application performance infrastructure, announced Riverbed®SteelHead™ 8.6, bringing the number one application acceleration solution to the Microsoft Azure cloud. Already available in other leading public clouds, SteelHead, with the addition of Microsoft Azure, is now capable of optimising and accelerating the delivery of applications across 90% of public cloud deployments. Riverbed also introduced, SteelHead CX 7055v, an enterprise-scale virtual solution delivering up to 1Gbps of optimised traffic for private and hybrid clouds. Enterprises can now expand virtualisation in their data centres to increase efficiency and lower IT costs, while also accelerating and controlling applications to and from every type of cloud.

“SteelHead is the dominant platform for accelerating business applications across enterprise networks. Our customers are now deploying applications in multiple clouds and scaling their network infrastructure to 1Gbps to ensure the highest level of user experience at all locations. SteelHead 8.6 simplifies these deployment challenges by allowing our customers to deliver consistent application performance across an increasingly dynamic IT environment,” said Paul O’Farrell, Senior Vice President and General Manager, SteelHead Products Group at Riverbed. “With SteelHead 8.6, enterprises can enjoy an enhanced user experience for the full range of Microsoft business apps and Microsoft Azure-based cloud workloads.”

SlideShare Presentation: Riverbed SteelHead 8.6

“As Microsoft Azure works to erase the boundaries between cloud development and operational management, we look to partners like Riverbed to provide the application performance infrastructure that optimises the end user’s experience when apps are delivered via the cloud,” said Garth Fort, General Manager of System Centre and Virtualisation, Microsoft Corporation. “In a cloud-first world, applications should be accessed and delivered quickly − without the challenges of application latency, competition among applications, and bandwidth restrictions. This is what’s required for the best user experience in today’s app-driven economy, and that’s what Riverbed is all about.”

What’s New in SteelHead 8.6

Now available for Microsoft Azure: SteelHead CX cloud instances are now available as a subscription-based offering in Microsoft Azure, making SteelHead available for 90% of public cloud deployments. SteelHead enables enterprises to host their applications with the cloud vendor that best meets their business
Enterprise-scale SteelHead for virtual environments and private/hybrid clouds: When virtualised infrastructure is required, IT can avoid multiple SteelHead virtual devices and simplify their network architecture with SteelHead CX 7055V, a new virtual appliance that can optimise up to 1Gbps of traffic. The SteelHead CX 7055v simplifies deployment in private cloud architectures and enterprise-scale virtualised data centres with a single virtualised 1G appliance deployed on a standard server.
App Engine upgrade for greater control over all network traffic: SteelHead users can now set policies and classes for over 1,100 applications. As a result, SteelHead now enables more granular control over all network traffic, automatically reserving bandwidth for business-critical apps and steering them on to low-latency, uncongested links. This allows IT to align application delivery more directly with business needs.
A higher-performance mid-range application acceleration platform: For mid-range enterprise deployments, the new CX570 and CX770 deliver higher performance and better diagnostics and are simple to upgrade at the same price as their predecessors, CX555 and CX755.

Riverbed SteelHead and the Riverbed Application Performance Platform™
Riverbed SteelHead is the industry’s #1 WAN optimisation solution that accelerates the delivery of applications to the branch and from the cloud, while allowing IT to prioritise delivery of mission-critical applications over the fastest networks. Riverbed is a leader in the latest “Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Optimisation Controllers”[1] and has been in the leaders’ quadrant for seven years in a row. In January 2014, SteelHead was recognised by InfoWorld with a Technology of the Year Award for the eighth time. Riverbed pioneered WAN optimisation in 2004 with unique innovations for application and data streamlining across the WAN and Internet to deliver the best end-user experience regardless of location, network or device while dramatically reducing network bandwidth.

In a world where application performance equals business performance, Riverbed offers the most complete platform to enable organisations to embrace location-independent computing, so that business objectives – not technical constraints – drive how applications and data are delivered. The Riverbed Application Performance Platform is a set of integrated solutions that give companies the flexibility to host applications and data in the locations that best serve the business while ensuring the flawless delivery of those apps to better leverage global resources, radically reduce the cost of running their business and maximise employee productivity.

Availability and Additional Resources
Riverbed SteelHead 8.6 andSteelHead CX 7055v are generally available now. For more information visit SteelHead for WAN optimisation online.