Riverbed Steelhead

Riverbed SteelHead is the complete solution for ensuring operation of applications, optimization and control which allows to reach the maximum capacity and considerable cost reduction connected with management of delivery of applications in local and cloud environments. Riverbed SteelHead is a part of the platform of performance of the Riverbed Application Performance Platform applications which provides complex visibility of performance together with Riverbed SteelCentral and program-controlled IT services and resources of remote divisions using Riverbed SteelFusion.

2015

SteelHead CX 70

On January 21, 2015 the Riverbed company announced a new product line of SteelHead CX 70. The product is developed for WAN optimization specially taking into account requirements of the modern applications working in hybrid networks.

The new line meets the requirements and requests of hybrid environments, providing unobstructed sight, control and optimization for any applications — corporate and SaaS.

The scheme of deployment SteelHead in a hybrid environment, 2014

The new form factor which is used in the device supplements the solutions SteelHead 9.0 and Riverbed SteelCentral AppResponse 9.5 issued in November, 2014 which provide unobstructed sight, control and optimization for acceleration of work corporate, cloud and the SaaS-applications. The new product line of SteelHead CX 70 received regeneration of the equipment, the architecture on the basis of SSD is implemented, volumes of RAM are doubled and processing power for more flexible scaling and performance improvement of applications is increased.

"The new products Riverbed give to hybrid networks and the SaaS-applications the same advantages that we gave to traditional WAN networks and corporate applications on an extent more than ten years — Alexander Stulov, the sales director of Russia and the CIS told Riverbed companies. — SteelHead always provided excellent optimization of applications. Now visibility and control over all hybrid applications and networks was added to it that will allow the companies to reach maximum capacity. The new equipment of CX70 series in a combination to SteelHead 9.0 and SteelCentral AppResponse 9.5 — the most powerful solution for IT which will transform performance of applications to performance of all business".

Structure of updating of products of series CX 70

• Increase in capacity of WAN more than by 5 times for SteelHead Network Services including QoS, Path Selection, Secure Transport and SteelFlow technologies Application Flow Engine, Network (integration of opportunities of the SteelHead 9.0 and SteelCentral AppResponse 9.5 applications for receiving the most exact metrics of performance);
• Nominal support of 100% of the optimized connections with use of secure sockets of SSL and protocols of the TLS applications for meeting requirements of safety of transportation of the data shown by modern applications;
• Considerable performance improvement and reliability of applications due to implementation of architecture with the solid state drive (SSD).

Riverbed Steelhead 9.1

On August 12, 2015 the Riverbed Technology company announced release of release of the version of Riverbed SteelHead 9.1. The solution provides stability of work, unobstructed sight, optimization and control of delivery of applications on hybrid WAN networks.

The version of SteelHead 9.1 helps IT commands quickly and reliably to deliver applications on hybrid networks. The solution redirects data, crucial for business, through inexpensive public Internet connections and helps to receive the maximum return of investments. In addition to function of a direct network delivery in Riverbed SteelHead 9.1 it is improved by SaaS optimization, the big flexibility with new universal licensing of SaaS and optimization of performance for Box, ServiceNow, SAP SuccessFactors and Microsoft Dynamics CRM in addition to already operating support of Salesforce and Microsoft Office 365 is reached.

"The main problem of clouds — the poor performance of applications. Already 10 years of Riverbed are in the lead in the market of performance of applications and help the companies to achieve the maximum results from use of cloud computing — Alexander Stulov, the chief representative of Riverbed Technology in Russia and the CIS told. — SteelHead 9.1 is the most complete solution thanks to which all corporate and cloud applicaions work as it is necessary for business. Today performance of operation of applications directly affects business performance. SteelHead 9.1 provides the highest security level and flexibility in order that the IT command could fully take all advantage of clouds and public Internet access".

Properties of release

• The built-in proxy server increases work performance on the Internet. Riverbed developed the most complete solution for creation of ideal conditions of work of the end user and reduction of the traffic sent on connections with a direct delivery to network. SteelHead 9.1 represents completely built-in transparent (HTTPS) proxy server with caching of web objects in all Internet traffic. It saves capacity of networks due to prevention of file transfer of potentially big size — the request becomes isolated at the local level and time for connection setup is not spent that finally increases application performance. Such opportunities are especially effective when processing "heavy" video files which employees even more often use for training and holding meetings.

• Universal SaaS optimization for the best scalability. After SteelHead release 9.1 users of SteelHead SaaS will be able to have new opportunities for increase in flexibility and performance for only 1.99 US dollars for the user in a month with the universal license. The solution on a subscription of SteelHead SaaS accelerates delivery of the SaaS-applications due to increase in their performance almost by 33 times and decrease in the used capacity by 97%. The solution provides necessary flexibility for optimization of performance of the applications, most important for business, and fast scaling. It will help to save the usual cost level and to increase business flexibility.

Possibilities of SteelHead SaaS:

• The universal license for all supported SaaS-applications. Within the product SteelHead 9.1 SteelHead SaaS it is provided in the form of a uniform subscription for each user which works for all supported SaaS-applications. Users can turn on optimization of an additional SaaS-applications simple mouse click in control panels, without buying new services.
• Optimization of performance for bigger number of the SaaS-applications. The organizations use more and more different SaaS-applications. This transition sets the new tasks connected with network transmission capacity, performance of applications and working conditions of end users. Earlier SteelHead provided optimization, visibility and control taking into account specific features only for Salesforce.com and also support for Microsoft Office 365. SteelHead 9.1 allows to pass to optimization of applications for Box, ServiceNow, SAP SuccessFactors and Microsoft Dynamics CRM without additional costs.

Riverbed SteelHead 9.1 is available to users. The release of SteelHead SaaS with universal licensing is planned for the beginning of August, 2015.

2014

Riverbed SteelHead 9.0

On November 17, 2014 the Riverbed Technology company announced start of the new version of a flagship product — Riverbed SteelHead 9.0.

According to the statement of the company, the new solution optimizes any applications, helps to manage performance from DPC to a cloud environment, facilitates control of work in hybrid networks by means of the optimal choice of the routes which are easily grouping applications using regulations, estimating their role in terms of business.

"Riverbed technologies which within the last decade successfully optimized work more than 1100 applications in geographically distributed networks, will be available also to cloud and the SaaS-applications now — Alexander Stulov, the sales director of Russia and the CIS noted Riverbed companies. — New versions of the products Riverbed completely illustrate our vision of hybrid corporate environments which development will allow to turn performance of applications into competitive advantage, to achieve the maximum capacity of employees and to apply IT to new forms of quick reaction on business calls and realities".

Advantages

• Unobstructed sight from DPC to cloud environments. SteelHead 9.0 is integrated with SteelCentral AppReponse 9.5 that allows to manage the broad picture of performance traditional, cloud and the SaaS-applications. Unique opportunities of monitoring of performance of work of end users do SteelCentral AppResponse 9.5 by the only solution capable to estimate quality of work of the end user as in the networks and the SaaS-applications optimized using SteelHead, and at not optimized. This complex does monitoring and fault recovery quickly and effectively.

• Simplification of control over operation of applications and networks. SteelHead 9.0 groups applications in type and priority for business that allows to activate automatically SLA for different types of applications. Besides, the centralized control over hybrid networks and applications is provided using the regulations estimating their role in terms of business which simplify processes of setup and management of the choice of routes, service quality (QoS) and reliable service of data.

The technology of the choice of ways allows SteelHead 9.0 to build "smart" routes and, depending on business challenges, to set priorities, to secure and deliver crucial applications on the fastest networks, and less important applications — on the Internet. So, voice traffic of the Microsoft Lync program will be delivered through MPLS, and video signal of the same application — via the Internet. New features give to users the chance to send applications with SLA relevant to their business needs on different networks, selecting optimal price relation and speeds for delivery of applications and data with different priorities.

• Optimization, automation and safe delivery of an additional SaaS-applications. It is necessary to have for the most complete optimization of the application an opportunity, its recognition by the solution. The product SteelHead 9.0 distinguishes more than 1100 applications — traditional, cloud and SaaS which it can optimize for the best performance. At the same time the Riverbed company constantly expands number and type of applications which are defined by SteelHead. Including special attention is paid also to the SaaS-applications.

• Geo IQ for Microsoft Office 365. The latest version of SteelHead 9.0 also supports Geo IQ for Microsoft Office 365 thanks to what users always remain connected to the mailbox and enjoy optimal performance irrespective of location of a box of Office 365 and the user.

Availability

The product will become available to users in the fourth quarter 2014.

2012

The Riverbed Technology company announced release of a new solution which will allow the organizations using SAP applications to increase their performance and to simplify infrastructure of filial offices. The virtual copy of the solution for acceleration of delivery of the applications working based on a technology platform of SAP NetWeaver provides remote access to corporate applications through the platform of Riverbed services (Riverbed Services Platform, RSP). Finally it allows the companies using Riverbed Steelhead devices and SAP solutions to optimize performance of applications and a possibility of a global network, says Riverbed Technology.

Using a virtual copy solutions for acceleration of delivery of applications together with RSP, clients will be able to consolidate IT resources of filial offices and also to optimize performance of crucial business applications of SAP with which end users work worldwide. Besides, for the purpose of a customer support the Riverbed Steelhead device with the RiOS system of version 6.0 was certified by SAP for integration with SAP NetWeaver 7.0.

The organizations will be able to deploy virtual devices, such as service of express delivery of applications for SAP NetWeaver, directly based on the virtualized expanded platform of data transmission of RSP that will allow them to minimize IT infrastructure at filial office and to reduce operating costs. In turn, the service of express delivery of applications working based on RSP will allow clients to deploy the boundary services as virtual devices.

"Performance, reliability and security – here the main objectives facing the organizations which provide access to applications within the distributed IT infrastructure — Joerg Nalik, the director of infrastructure technologies, SAP Labs said. — The service of express delivery of applications working based on the RSP platform provides a considerable gain of performance of SAP solutions and other suppliers irrespective of in what place in the world users perform the business operations".

Steelhead CX 5055 и Steelhead CX 7055

In November, 2012 Riverbed Technology announced release of hardware models of devices and new software versions (software) in the family of the leading industry products Riverbed Steelhead. Within this announcement of Riverbed represents new high-performance models of Steelhead CX devices with solid state drives (SSD) and new versions of the client software of Steelhead Mobile and the Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) operating system running which Steelhead devices work. The performance improvement implemented in new versions of products allows the companies to consolidate and scale more effectively the IT infrastructure, since data processing centers to branches with mobile employees and to take advantage of virtualization and consolidation of data without deterioration in performance and comfort of work of users.

Models of Steelhead CX 5055 and Steelhead CX 7055 devices are designed for ensuring high performance, combine a scaling option of capacity and TCP of sessions and use solid state drives. These new high-performance devices meet the most serious requirements of large enterprises for scaling, performance, reliability and flexibility, allowing to exercise with smaller costs control big replication of data from one data processing center in another, to accelerate operation of applications in different points and for different types of users and to create scalable private cloud environments. New models of devices provide twice high channel capacity and maintain twice the bigger number of the optimized connections.

Besides, the organizations can use the Riverbed Interceptor® device for processing to one million simultaneous connections that satisfies to requirements of the most large-scale and difficult data processing centers. Similar level of scalability and reliability is demanded by the large enterprises performing virtualization of the infrastructure and consolidation of the data processing centers for the purpose of reduction of their quantity in regions.

Steelhead Mobile 4.0

Improvements in the software of Steelhead Mobile 4.0 simplify management and initialization of users and devices. Also in the new version of software the scaling option with support to 120 thousand mobile users is provided. In the software of Steelhead Mobile 4.0 support of pass-through authentication of Kerberos which is used in products and platforms of Microsoft, including in the Active Directory and Windows Server is implemented now; the built-in optimization of traffic of SMBv2 and complete optimization of Outlook Anywhere is implemented. Besides, thanks to new opportunities of a clustering and the advanced user interface of the Steelhead Mobile Controller (SMC) controller of the enterprise receive the simplified mechanism for a configuration the politician and can scale the infrastructure for satisfaction of the growing requirements of the increasing number of mobile employees.

For the first time the possibility of thin setup of the QoS parameters in the environment of VMware View is provided to the industries

Many companies aiming most full to use possibilities of virtualization implement the solution of VMware View for creation of infrastructure of virtual workstations (VDI). This infrastructure provides more economic and reliable method for management of users in branches and for simplification of procedures of management of desktops and applications. However the problems with performance when using geographically distributed networks (WAN) including caused by long distances, cross-network delays, limited opportunities and high cost of capacity and unforeseen failures can lead to negative experience for the end users working in the VDI environment.

Throughout the partnership announced in August, 2011 with Teradici company which is directed to more effective elimination of problems with IT infrastructure performance and after a preview technologists at the VMworld exhibition, the Riverbed company presents an industry-first possibility of setup of parameters of service quality (QoS) for PCoIP for thin traffic management of virtual VMware View workstations in the software of RiOS 8.0. The combination of optimization of WAN and a possibility of prioritization of the PCoIP protocol at so thin level and also other types of traffic transferred on the same WAN links allows the organizations to achieve necessary balance between virtualization of workstations and work of business applications, when using the same WAN channels. Expanded support of QoS in RiOS 8.0

In the version of RiOS 8.0 the Riverbed company expanded the built-in opportunities for the QoS setup six times and added a feature for the automated identification and setup of priorities more than for 600 protocols.

Information on product availability in the market The software of RiOS 8.0, Steelhead Mobile 4.0, and the Steelhead CX 5055 and Steelhead CX 7055 device will be available in the fourth quarter 2012.