The Next Generation of Mobile Worker Acceleration

Safety first.  As security concerns become more pervasive, the pursuit of a bulletproof network has become the holy grail for IT managers at organizations of all sizes.  Unfortunately, in their quest for unassailable data security performance often suffers, leading to cries for revolt by users and perhaps an even bigger problem than the one that was just resolved.  Fortunately, with today’s introduction of Steelhead Mobile 2.0 the coveted combination of security and performance is no longer a myth, but a reality that is already being enjoyed by over 15% of Riverbeds existing customer base. 

One of the things that makes the release of Steelhead Mobile 2.0 so exciting is that it highlights the true comprehensiveness of the Riverbed solution.  Since both the Steelhead Appliance and Steelhead Mobile share the same RiOS code features and functionality are virtually interchangeable.  Our secure socket layer (SSL) and HTTPS solution is a perfect illustration of this. We were able to bring the same patent-pending approach to secure acceleration that maintains the preferred trust model developed for the Steelhead appliance to Steelhead Mobile. This means that, for the first time, mobile worker can enjoy speed and security without the threat of a man in the middle attack or the vulnerability of having the private key leave the data center. 

In addition to highlighting the close integration with the Steelhead appliance Steelhead Mobile  2.0 also reflects Riverbeds continued commitment to its customers by directly addressing some of our their most common requests.  To better accelerate applications that are crucial for businesses on the go Steelhead Mobile 2.0 becomes the first wide-area data services (WDS) vendor to deliver protocol optimizations specifically for MAPI 2007 and Oracle Forms.  By working directly at the application layer, layer 7, we are seeing a profound improvement in performance for Exchange 2007 and Oracle E-Business Suite users.   We’re also introducing significantly greater license management flexibility through Enhanced Steelhead Auto-Detection and Link Based Licensing.  While we typically see around four users sharing a single license under our concurrent licensing model, the fact that organizations will now be able to use the local Steelhead appliance to accelerate traffic when a mobile worker returns to the office has the potential allow even more users to enjoy the speed and security of Steelhead Mobile 2.0 without purchasing additional licenses. 

This combination of SSL/HTTPS security, the speed of layer 7 application acceleration for MAPI 2007 and Oracle Forms, and the greater flexibility of license management introduced makes today an exciting day for the entire Mobile Team here at Riverbed and for Mobile Workers everywhere.  We hope that you'll join us in feeling the wind in your hair as you speed through your work wherever it takes you!

A day of firsts

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Hello, world.  First let me introduce myself: Nik Rouda, senior marketing manager for the Steelhead appliances.  This is my first blog posting at Riverbed, and what a lot of news there is to share.  We’re doing our first quadruple product launch today: the Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) 5.5, the enhanced Riverbed Services Platform (RSP), Steelhead Mobile 2.0, and new hardware models. 

With the RiOS 5.5 release we’re introducing a number of industry “first to market” features, continually extending our technological leadership and comprehensive approach.  We’re the first vendor to offer application layer performance optimization for Lotus Notes, developed alongside IBM.  We’re the first to partner with VMware and put their virtualization technology directly on a WAN optimization appliance.  We’ve added numerous performance enhancements for disaster recovery and replication.  And we’re the first to offer a completely seamless range of field upgradeable hardware from desktop to 3U models.  All of these help our customers do more with less, getting better performance and productivity while reducing operating expenses.

All of this is a result of our philosophy of putting customers first and responding to their needs for speed, scale, simplicity, and cost savings.  While our competitors’ products may feel like they’re stuck in first gear, we’re roaring along with new innovations to improve your productivity on the information superhighway.  They’re just getting to first base in offering features we’ve had for years, and we’re hitting grand slam home runs for our customers.  While the competition is stuck in the pits trying to fix problems, we’re leading the race in first place according to both Gartner and Forrester.

Today is the first day of the rest of your IT life.  Carpe diem and be the first on your block to check out all the new offerings from Riverbed.

Experience with Steelhead Mobile Across Asia – Part 2

In my work for Riverbed I lead an interesting life, traipsing across the Asia-Pacific region and Evangelizing about the wonders and benefits of WAN Acceleration.

Call it what you will – Application Acceleration, WAN Optimization, Wide-Area File Services (WAFS), Wide-Area Data Services (WDS), etc – many terms exist to describe the functionality and benefits that appliances like the Steelhead product line from Riverbed Technology bring to organizations around the world.

Riverbed however is unique in the industry in offering a truly mature, stable, fully-functional product for mobile user acceleration, with the Steelhead Mobile PC client Acceleration software.

Riverbed Technical Support

More than 4500 enterprises depending on timely and knowledgeable technical assistance from Riverbed’s support engineers.  Riverbed customers are scattered throughout the globe, conducting IT operations at all hours throughout the 24 x 7 week.  To meet their support needs Riverbed’s technical support team is similarly deployed at 8 locations around the world (San Francisco, Sunnyvale, New York, London, Amsterdam, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo).  These support locations are staffed by more than 60 Riverbed support engineers with advanced degrees and certifications, including a majority of whom that either have or will shortly receive CCIE certifications.

To verify that Riverbed customers are receiving the quality of technical assistance that they need, Riverbed regularly conducts annual customer satisfaction surveys.  About one in five of those surveyed responded, and here is how they rated Riverbed’s customer support on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the favorable:

Cisco VP lets us know WAAS up!

George Kurian, VP of Cisco’s application delivery division, recently held a conference call where he provided a state of the WAN optimization market along with an overview of Cisco’s WAAS 4.1 release.  While I applaud George for coming public to address key issues involving Cisco’s WAN optimization product, there were many misleading and inaccurate statements.

Riverbed community growing fast

My evangelist role at Riverbed could not be more fulfilling. Moving out of product management, I was excited at the opportunity to be Riverbed’s go-to customer advocate, reaching out to users around the globe to assist them with their technical needs, provide best practices for using their Riverbed products, or simply field feature requests ensuring that their voice is heard when it comes to determining what products and capabilities we decide to build. Being an evangelist isn’t as easy as it seems.