Riverbed expands Steelhead into the cloud

Riverbed Technology is expanding its optimisation appliances, offering two products aimed at accelerating the performance of cloud computing applications and storage services.

The first is a cloud-based implementation of the firm's Steelhead appliance for the application market. The wide area network optimisation service will extend Steelhead's performance management features into cloud-based applications, the firm said.

The subscription-based service is currently set to work with Amazon's EC2 and Virtual Private Cloud platforms.

Apurva Dave, Riverbed's vice president of product marketing, told V3.co.uk that the cloud appliance is not intended to replace the network appliance version of Steelhead, but to complement and expand the platform.

"Riverbed is not trying to force everyone to shift to the cloud," he said. " Instead we are implementing a model where customers can choose what is right for them."

The second product is a new appliance known as Whitewater which manages traffic between an enterprise datacentre and a public cloud storage service.

Whitewater can be deployed with most traditional backup platforms, and will optimise traffic speeds and provide deduplication and encryption services, according to Riverbed.

The appliance will be available in hardware and virtual deployments starting at just under $12,000 (£7,500). It will be supported at launch by cloud storage services from AT&T, Amazon, Nirvanix, EMC and Rackspace.

Dave said that Whitewater will give enterprises more choice in deciding on l o cal or cloud-based applications and infrastructure.

"We want the customer to decide what IT strategy is best for them, and we want to provide the technology to accelerate that strategy whatever it may be," he said.

"We can enable the customer to say that, wherever they do business, any of those locations could be potentially accelerated by Riverbed."