Riverbed Technology, the application performance company, has announced updates to its SD-WAN offering Riverbed SteelConnect, an app-defined, cloud networking solution that provides an intelligent and simplified approach to designing, deploying and managing distributed networks.
As part of the announcement, SteelConnect now supports complex enterprise environments and dramatically simplifies the implementation of large-scale SD-WAN deployments in the data centre with non-disruptive network integration. Riverbed also announced availability of a new line of SteelHead SD models, which combines SteelConnect and industry-leading WAN optimisation into a streamlined single-device solution, providing network-agility and one-click connectivity into Microsoft Azure and AWS for superior app and cloud performance. These announcements follow SteelConnect’s tremendous market momentum, in which the Company has surpassed 300 SD-WAN customers and 1,600 online SteelConnect trials.
The cloud continues to grow at a rapid pace, with spending on public cloud services expected to reach $247 Billion in 2017 (up 18 percent from 2016), and $383 Billion by 2020, according to Gartner.[1] While there’s been major advancements in cloud computing, cloud storage and cloud apps, traditional networking has been left behind. In fact, Gartner says 50% of cloud deployments will suffer from business-impacting performance issues, requiring extensive network redesign.
“In today’s cloud era, legacy approaches to networking which are hardware-centric, rigid and error-prone are preventing businesses from moving forward,” said Paul O’Farrell, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Riverbed’s SteelConnect, SteelHead, and SteelFusion business units. “Riverbed has redefined networking for the cloud with an SD-WAN solution that is application and software-defined, and delivers unprecedented simplicity and agility. The market has responded with hundreds of customers deploying our SD-WAN solutions to date. With today’s SteelConnect and SteelHead SD launches, Riverbed is taking cloud networking one step further, with a new integrated offering driven by customer demand, and updates that deliver greater scalability, and superior network agility and cloud performance.”
Simplifying large-scale SD-WAN deployment. The new SteelConnect SDI-5030 Data Centre Gateway Appliances simplify the deployment of SD-WAN for large-scale global networks. While other SD-WAN solutions can require thousands of lines of configuration updates and/or firmware upgrades to core data centre routers, SteelConnect benefits from integration with the battle-tested Riverbed Interceptor appliance to non-disruptively integrate and orchestrate SD-WAN and WAN Optimisation services into data centre networks, with elastic scale and high-availability to support application delivery across thousands of remote locations.
Combining SD-WAN and WAN-Optimisation capabilities. Riverbed SteelConnect and industry-leading SteelHead WAN optimisation work together to exchange application identification and classification information to ensure an end-to-end application-centric solution across the network and into the cloud. This is in contrast to dual-vendor approaches where the fidelity of application identity is compromised as packets transmit between discrete network services. The new line of SteelHead SD models (570-SD, 770-SD & 3070-SD) seamlessly integrates SD-WAN and WAN optimisation services into a streamlined single-device offering. By deploying a unified solution combining SD-WAN (SteelConnect) and WAN optimisation (SteelHead), enterprises can streamline and simplify their approach to cloud networking, drive network agility and deliver superior performance for on-premises and cloud-based applications with ease.
“Even as enterprises embrace cloud computing for increased business agility, network-connectivity issues remain a major challenge,” said Brad Casemore, research director for datacenter networks at IDC. “Riverbed has responded by offering a solution that integrates SD-WAN and WAN optimisation so that customers can have unified control and management of both traditional and hybrid-cloud networks. Interestingly, IDC research has found that the top three customer requirements for SD-WAN are security, WAN optimisation, and policy control and management. With this announcement, Riverbed has sought to address all three concerns in a single device, while also providing their customers with more flexibility as they evolve their networks.”
SteelConnect, initially launched as an early access offering in April 2016, is the industry’s first and only product that unifies deployment and orchestration of hybrid WANs, branch networks, and cloud environments, including one-click connectivity to AWS and Microsoft Azure. SteelConnect also enables zero-touch provisioning, allowing an enterprise to set-up a global network and connect to the cloud in minutes, and easy ongoing network management that provides the ability to make network or business/application policy changes with a few clicks of a mouse. Riverbed announced general availability of SteelConnect 2.0 in September 2016 with many new features, including integrated visibility with Riverbed SteelCentral.
In January 2017, Riverbed announced a “One-Click” cloud networking solution for secure connectivity to Microsoft Azure cloud networks. Now, Riverbed’s SD-WAN solution boasts seamless platform integration with the market-leading Riverbed SteelHead solution, and streamlined data centre integration for large-scale deployments. Riverbed’s 300 SD-WAN customers spans across a wide range of industries globally, including retail, manufacturing, healthcare, professional services, finance, technology, and many more.
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