Steelhead Family Brochure - Riverbed

PRODUCT BROCHURERiverbed SteelheadProduct Family1

PRODUCT BROCHURE: Riverbed Steelhead Product FamilyOverviewThe Riverbed Steelhead Product FamilyCompanies of all sizes depend on the Riverbed ®Steelhead ® product family to accelerate andimprove the performance of applications overthe wide area network (WAN).Steelhead products are the highest performingand most scalable WAN optimization solutionsavailable, overcoming both bandwidth andlatency problems to deliver LAN-like performanceto branch offices or mobile workersacross the globe. They help cut WAN bandwidthby 65 to 90 percent, consolidate and migrateapplications and data without performancepenalties, and speed up backup and replicationby up to ten times.The result is more productive users, faster dataflow, and seamlessly performing applications.Riverbed Technology brings the world closertogether, changing the way people work.Accelerating Applications for theGlobal WorkforceSteelhead appliances improve application performance and acceleratedata transfer over the WAN, overcoming bandwidth andgeographical limitations. With Riverbed, file transfers that once tookhours or minutes now take minutes or seconds, dramatically improvingproductivity and global collaboration.Steelhead CX appliances – Dedicated WAN optimization appliancesfeaturing Riverbed ® Operating System (RiOS ® ) WAN optimizationsoftware. They are available in a variety of sizes for small office,midsize office, large office, or data center use.Steelhead EX appliances – Enterprise-class branch office appliancesbased on RiOS WAN optimization software and a VMware ®vSphere-based virtual services platform (VSP). They are available assmall office and midsize office appliances.Steelhead EX + Granite appliances – The ultimate branch officeappliance featuring RiOS WAN optimization software, a VMware ®-vSphere based virtual services platform (VSP), and Riverbed Graniteproducts, the virtual edge of the data center. Granite productsinclude a block-storage optimization module running on VSP thatallows end users and applications in branch offices to read and writeto centralized data over the WAN as if it were local in the branch.Steelhead Mobile software – Software-based Steelhead solution forlaptops and mobile devices.Virtual Steelhead Edition – Virtual edition of a Steelhead appliance.Cloud Steelhead Edition – Virtual edition of Steelhead for deploymentin a public cloud such as Amazon EC2.Workers today need access to information wherever and wheneverthey work – whether at corporate headquarters, a branch office onanother continent, or on site with a customer. The demand for anywhere/anytimeaccess to data puts tremendous strain on IT to deliveran increasing number of applications over the WAN.Industry-leading WAN optimization solutions from Riverbed Technologyenable IT to centralize and reduce operational overhead andexpense, while improving end-user satisfaction. Steelhead productshave been proven in some of the most demanding and complex networksin the world, with thousands of customers deploying SteelheadWAN optimization solutions.2

Key BenefitsAcceleration of key enterprise applicationsRiverbed Steelhead products accelerate the broad set of applicationsimportant to business. Riverbed application modules,combined with the company’s data streamlining and transportstreamlining, deliver dramatic performance increases across theWAN for all TCP applications, by up to 100 times.IT infrastructure consolidation and virtualizationConsolidate file, email, and application servers, and storage fromremote branches to cut costs and operational complexity withoutsacrificing performance. Deploy virtual servers, desktops, and applicationswith reduced bandwidth requirements and response times,improving the end user experience.Reduced bandwidth utilizationCompanies that have deployed Riverbed Steelhead productstypically reduce bandwidth utilization by 60-95 percent, oftenallowing them to defer costly network bandwidth upgrades.Enhanced data protectionOrganizations can eliminate remote backup infrastructure andremediate the risk of data disclosure through lost tapes or media.By speeding data transfer, Riverbed enables speedy, resilient, andsecure replication and backup over the WAN, often reducingreplication times from hours to minutes.Secure application accelerationRiverbed is the only company that can optimize SSL traffic withoutcompromising the end-to-end trust model. Companies subject tocompliance regulations such as SOX, HIPAA, PCI, or other securityrequirements can deliver both performance and security for theirapplications.Visibility and analyticsRiverbed gives the visibility needed in order to determine whereproblems exist, analyze how those problems can be addressed,and then tune infrastructure in order to best solve those problems.Complete WAN optimization solutions not only provide order ofmagnitude performance improvements, but the ability to measureand monitor those improvements across optimized locations andsites that could benefit from further optimization.Enable the mobile workforceMobile workers often receive sub-optimal application performancewhen they connect to resources from remote locations. WithSteelhead Mobile, IT can deliver local performance to remoteworkers wherever they connect.Virtual Steelhead appliance for custom deploymentsWhether organizations need to support ruggedized environmentsor need elastic capacity for their Steelhead deployment, the virtualSteelhead appliance fits the bill. The virtual Steelhead appliancealso provides dual-ended virtualization capability wherein organizationscan migrate their infrastructure to a public cloud withoutsacrificing application performance.The Riverbed Difference: Speed,Scalability, SimplicitySpeedSteelhead products address performancelimitations using a multi-tiered optimizationapproach. Unlike last generationtechnologies, such as wide area fileservices (WAFS) or file caching, Steelheadproducts optimize traffic using a patentedapplication agnostic algorithm toachieve massive-scale data deduplication.It layers TCP and UDP optimization as well as application protocoloptimization on top of its data reduction technique to deliver amulti-tiered optimization strategy that sets the technological high-bar for WAN optimization, and delivers unparalleled applicationacceleration over the WAN.ScalabilityA universal data store provides greaterscalability than per-peer storage modelsand reduces WAN optimization storagerequirements. By avoiding the per-peerstorage limitation, companies can easilyscale to hundreds of sites with any-to-anyconnectivity. Steelhead products also utilizea TCP-based transport, which avoidsthe pitfalls of running a proprietary transport on a shared network.The Steelhead product family supports up to 12 Gbps of optimizedthroughput and handles 1 million concurrent connections. It is oneof the most scalable in the industry.With the RiOS-aware Riverbed Interceptor ® product, connections arealways re-directed to the correct Steelhead appliance in a cluster toensure maximum performance. Steelhead 7050 series appliances alsoensure easy integration into disaster recovery environments thatrequire massive scalability and performance.SimplicityCompanies can deploy Steelheadproducts in a matter of minutes: deploymentscan be performed from a singleconsole and are virtually plug-and-play.They do not require any changes toclients and servers nor the use of specificrouting protocols. Steelhead productshave been proven in a broad range ofnetwork environments alongside VoIP, video conferencing, and QoS,giving customers flexibility and seamless integration with existinginfrastructure.3

PRODUCT BROCHURE: Riverbed Steelhead Product FamilyAccelerate Key Enterprise Applications• Steelhead products optimize TCP- and UDP-basedapplications through a multi-tiered optimizationapproach.• Riverbed delivers specific application accelerationmodules for CIFS, MAPI, Notes, HTTP/HTTPS, NFS,Oracle Forms and MS-SQL 2000.• An easy-to-use GUI provides dashboard visibility ofWAN traffic and optimization status.Technological LeadershipSteelhead products have been proven to dramatically accelerateapplication performance in some of the most demanding customerenvironments. Riverbed customers range from the Fortune 50 andGlobal 1000, to companies with just one office. Steelhead productshave consistently proven themselves as the highest performingWAN optimization solutions, consistently earning recognition as the“Technology of the Year - WAN Accelerators” by InfoWorld for sixyears running, and have been routinely deemed a leader by industryanalyst Gartner in their “Magic Quadrant for WAN OptimizationControllers” report.“Our files and data now move more than 70times faster between offices, giving us theability to complete projects more quickly.”Bruce Bartolf, CTO, GenslerIT Infrastructure Consolidation - The PerformanceTrade-OffMany organizations are looking to consolidate their IT infrastructureas a way to simplify management, increase resource utilization,and reduce costs. Unfortunately, the consolidated IT model canoften result in diminished application performance and a hit to userproductivity that offsets any consolidation cost savings. RiverbedSteelhead products allow users to access consolidated IT resourceswithout trading off performance.Boomerang Email: 6.4 MB email attachment over T1 WAN –Time to Complete (in seconds)SubsequentSteelhead TransfersFirstSteelhead TransferMore than 63x fasterWithoutSteelhead0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130Moving into the CloudWhether companies are consolidating their IT infrastructure tocreate a “private cloud” infrastructure or outsourcing their infrastructureto Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) or Platform as a Service(PAAS) vendors that provide “public cloud” infrastructure, thelimitations on bandwidth and latency still remain. End users are faraway from the data and applications they are trying to access, whichresults in poor user response and inefficient data delivery. DeployingWAN optimization appliances is a great way to defeat both theseproblems, while saving money on costly bandwidth upgrades. Inshort, WAN optimization can be the driving force to enable consolidationto public or private cloud architectures.Branch SimplificationCompanies are approaching consolidation and virtualization of ITinbranch offices in two ways. First, they’re moving servers and storageout of the branch and into data centers where it can be moreefficiently aggregated and managed, and then extending the virtualedge of the data center back to end users across the WAN.4

Second, they’re taking local branch office serversand virtualizingthem to run directly on VMware vSphere on the Steelhead appliancesthat are already deployed in every site, for edge services suchas network services. With no more complex build outs or remoteservers to buy, install, and manage, branches get set up faster andleaner, administrative overhead decreases, and users are moreproductive.CIFS File Share over T1 WAN – Time to Complete (in seconds)SubsequentSteelhead OperationMore than 66x fasterFirstSteelhead OperationWithoutSteelhead0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350Enhanced Data Protection - The New ParadigmWell-publicized stories about tapes falling off trucks and thepotential leakage of sensitive data have become all too common forboth the enterprise and the consumer. CxOs require assurance thatsensitive data will remain private and are looking for ways to reducetheir data loss risk. With solutions from Riverbed, organizations canperform WAN-based backups or data replication without strugglingto finish jobs in a tight backup window. Steelhead products supportmost enterprise storage vendors’ solutions, including EMC andHDS. Customers are finding that what was previously unacceptableperformance on the WAN can now be improved by over 30 timeswith enhanced support for protocols such as FCIP and SRDF/A.NetApp SnapMirror Full Datastore Initialization or Recovery (5GB DirectoryTree) Over T1 WAN – Time to Complete (in minutes)SubsequentSteelhead OperationFirstSteelhead OperationMore than 45x fasterWithoutSteelhead0 100 200 300 400 500 600Enabling the Mobile WorkforceIT has often struggled to support remote users who need access tocorporate data and applications, and mobile users have come toexpect sub-optimal performance when they work remotely. SteelheadMobile software extends the award-winning technology to any PC orlaptop to deliver acceleration wherever users connect.With Steelhead Mobile software, applications run faster and remoteworkers no longer feel “remote.” Desktop virtualization solutions canalso be optimized for use on the WAN.SharePoint HTTP File Save: 6.14 MB file via Verizon Wireless v620 BroadbandCard (788Kbps with 209ms RTT latency) – Time to CompleteWarm RunCold RunWithoutSteelhead MobileMore than 63x faster0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90With accelerated replication, customers can also take more frequentsnapshots and dramatically improve their recovery time in the eventof a failure. Steelhead products have advanced features for highenddata center to data center disaster recovery, including specialenhancements for more optimized throughput, tunable compression,and clustering for high availability and scalability. Customers can useWAN optimization to “fill the pipe” for high bandwidth environmentsto maximize speed, or instead choose higher compression,deduplication, and QoS to limit the impact on bandwidth for otherapplications on a shared WAN.5

PRODUCT BROCHURE: Riverbed Steelhead Product FamilyThe Riverbed Framework• No tunnels• Auto-discovery• Virtually plug-and-playInitiate new TCP sessionsMaintain TCP sessionsMaintain TCP sessionsSteelheadApplianceWANDATA CENTERSteelheadApplianceBRANCH OFFICESteelhead Mobile ClientThe Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS)RiOS powers Steelhead products through a combination of patenteddata reduction, TCP and UDP optimization, and application-levelprotocol optimizations. Together, these technologies, along withRiOS management capabilities, provide a comprehensive solution forenterprise WAN optimization. RiOS consists of four components:Data streamlining – RiOS data streamlining works across all TCP andUDP applications to reduce bandwidth utilization, typically by 60 to95 percent. Data streamlining works across file sharing, email, CAD,ERP, VDI, web-based HTTP and HTTPS applications, databases, and allother applications that use TCP and UDP.Transport streamlining – RiOS transport streamlining reduces thenumber of TCP packets required to transfer data by 65 to 98 percent.Transport streamlining also enables the acceleration of SSL-encryptedtraffic throughout the enterprise to eliminate the security andperformance trade-off. With HS-TCP and MX-TCP, RiOS can enablegreater utilization of high bandwidth links (e.g., OC3, OC12, metrofiber,and other long fat networks (LFN)).“Without Riverbed, we would have had tomake a substantial investment in bandwidth.Now, we are saving an average ofUSD $144,000 per month and have seen areturn on investment within seven months.”Riad Mounir, Director of IT, Zain GroupApplication streamlining – RiOS application streamlining offers thebroadest support of application-specific modules for key enterpriseapplications to provide additional application performance improvements.By reducing application protocol chattiness up to 98 percentand minimizing application overhead, RiOS can provide massivethroughput increases to applications including file sharing (CIFSand NFS), Exchange (MAPI), Lotus Notes, Web (HTTP and HTTPS),database (MS-SQL 2000 and Oracle), and storage protocols like FCIPand SRDF/A (EMC).Management streamlining – RiOS enables easy deployment throughauto-discovery of peers and auto-interception of traffic, with noreconfiguration of clients, servers or routers. Many customersdeploy Steelhead products in minutes and RiOS simplifies ongoingmanagement by providing simple, but powerful web-based andcommand-line interfaces, in-depth reporting, and real-time NetFlowexport. Simple integration into the network has led to Steelheaddeployments in a vast array of network environments and topologiesincluding, but not limited to, MPLS, VoIP, video conferencing, QoS,VPN, satellite infrastructure, ATM, frame relay, microwave,and wireless.Quality of Service (QoS) – Riverbed QoS delivers a unique combinationof best-of-breed classification with an advanced, uniquescheduling technique based on Hierarchical Fair Service Curve (HFSC).This combination addresses the need for the accurate classification ofapplications, the allocation of minimum and maximum bandwidth,the ability to prioritize applications based on latency sensitivity, andinbound and outbound control. QoS in RiOS helps organizationsensure performance predictability by protecting important businessapplication traffic and containing less critical recreational traffic.6

Key FeaturesSteelhead Appliances• Cost-effective deployment – Appliance models that scale to meet thedeployment needs of any office• Application acceleration – Accelerate the broadest range of applications that arecritical to business• Simplicity – Transparently deploy in minutes without changes to applications, users,routers, or other IT infrastructure• Scalability – One of the most scalable acceleration solutions available on themarket, supporting thousands of users on one deviceVirtual Steelhead Appliance• Fully virtualized data centers – Leverage your existing investment in virtualizationto manage Virtualized Steelhead appliances.• Space limited deployments – Deploy WAN optimization without the hardware• Ruggedized environments – Seamlessly integrate into a ruggedized formfactor for military environments• Increase capacity on-demand – Scale capacity without requiring a forklift upgrade.Steelhead Mobile Software• Acceleration directly to any PC – Mobile workers, home offices, and very smallbranch offices• Fully transparent – Deploy without any input, management, or monitoring fromend users. Transparent to network connectivity or VPN.Steelhead Interceptor• Massive scaling – With the optional Interceptor, enterprises can enable massiveclustered deployments of Steelhead appliances. Up to 12 Gbps of throughput andup to 1,000,000 concurrent connections can be optimized simultaneously.• Support complexity – Enable complex redundant deployment, even in environmentswith asymmetric routingCloud Steelhead• Embrace the Public Cloud – Cloud Steelhead transforms the public cloud into anextension of the corporate data center by eliminating the barriers to enterpriseclasspublic cloud deployments. Compatibility with Amazon Web Services andESX-based cloud environments eliminates vendor lock-in by giving organizationsthe freedom to move between cloud providers with ease.• Pay as you Grow – A subscription pricing model and a host of cloud intelligentfeatures enable organizations to meet application performance SLAs, regardlessof network latency and enterpriseSteelhead Cloud Accelerator• Optimal SaaS Performance – Accelerated performance across the WAN and acrossthe public internet for un-matched performance from hybrid clouds.• Enterprise Scale with Cloud Economics – Derive immediate value with existing infrastructureand services. No need to deploy additional hardware. Leverage existingSteelhead appliance deployments in conjunction with Akamai’s Intelligent Platform.• Intelligent End-to-end Networking – Combine market leading WAN optimizationwith market leading Internet optimization. The power of this joint solution isunrivalled in the market.Virtual Services Platform (VSP)• Server virtualization – The Steelhead EX series appliances allow organizationsto run virtual machines for applications such as printing, DNS, and DHCP on aVMware vSphere platform• “Branch office in a box” consolidation – Eliminate other server hardware whilestill delivering high quality local “edge” services to the branch office• High availability – Support for high availability for virtual machines running onthe VSP platform• Management – Management for the VSP platform is integrated into the CentralManagement Console (CMC) or manageable by VMware vCenter toolsCentral Management Console• Deployment – Enable touchless configuration of new appliances. Controlpolicies, optimization rules, QoS configuration, and more.• Management – Enable a single management interface for enterprise deploymentsof Steelhead appliances. One-touch software upgrades, health alerts, jobscheduler and optimization performance can all be controlled centrally.• Visibility – Enables real-time visibility into application and WAN performance.Configure reporting and policies for Netflow export.• Virtual Edition (-VE) – Can be hosted on a hypervisor as a virtual machine.Steelhead Mobile Controller (SMC and SMC-VE)• Deployment – Enable automated deployment of Steelhead Mobile onto remotemachines. Control policies, optimization rules, and more.• Management – Access a single-source for monitoring and license management.One-touch software upgrades, health alerts, and optimization performance can becontrolled centrally.• Visibility – Enables real-time visibility into application and WAN performance.Customizable reporting is available.• Virtual Edition (VE) – Can be run on the RSP for small environments.Additional FeaturesNetwork Integration and Deployment Options• Transparency – Export real-time flows from a Steelhead appliance to a third-partyNetflow collector (including v.9), giving full visibility into WAN traffic by source,destination, IP address, application port, and more• Auto discovery – Appliances automatically find in-path peers in the network, withno tunnel configurations required• Deployment – Installs transparently in-line or as a “one arm” attachmentto routers/switches with direct configuration, WCCP, PBR, and L4 switch redirectionmodes• Multi-port interfaces – 4 Port GigE Card available (optional on all rackablemodels); Up to 3 cards (12 ports total) per Steelhead appliance• Asymmetric routing – Asymmetric route detection and connectionforwarding for support of route asymmetry on both the client andserver sides• Network agnostic – Full mesh, hub and spoke, and multi-drop topologies supported;MPLS, IP VPN, Satellite, Frame, ATM and any other IP transport supported• Seamless integration – Works easily with existing QoS, VoIP, video conferencingand other real-time trafficManagement and Policy• Configuration – Web UI, CLI, and Central Management Console (CMC), SteelheadManagement Console (SMC)• Marking – DSCP, port, and VLAN mapping and/or preservation. Automatic port-toapplicationmapping for reporting• Reporting – Robust real-time performance statistics gathering, export, and graphicalreporting; local, CMC, SMC, and Syslog logging; report on traffic by QoS class,application, and more; SNMP support• Optimization policy – Per-application admission and optimization controls• Bandwidth management – HFSC-based QoS allows for application prioritization,low-latency queuing for VoIP; settable WAN bandwidth rate controls includedHigh Availability• Clustering – Serial (in-path), parallel (out-of-path), or virtual in-pathclustering for massive scalability• Fail-to-wire – Ensures no loss in network connectivity in the event ofdevice failure• N:1 and 1:1 redundancy – Hot-standby redundancy and N:1 clustering• Redundant disk and power – Available RAID and dual power supplies onlarger models• Dual image SW upgrades – Schedule over-the-wire software upgrades withdual image, rollback, and scheduled restart/reboot• Fault Tolerant Solid State Disks (SSDs) – In the 7050 series of Steelheadappliances for combining high availability and higher performanceSecurity• SSL acceleration that maintains traffic encryption without breaking thepreferred trust model• RADIUS and TACACS+ support for authenticating access• Configurable SSL encryption for WAN traffic• Secure registration ensures only approved devices communicate with thecentral management console (CMC)• Support for Microsoft Online and other online services from Microsoft7