Network performance specialist Riverbed Technology has released a new appliance designed for storage and archiving management.

The Steelhead 7050 line uses the company's wide area network (WAN) appliance design to manage and maintain data storage operations.

Riverbed said that the appliance could be used to manage archives, system backups and disaster recovery.

Nik Rouda, product marketing director at Riverbed, told V3.co.uk that the 7050 complements existing network storage hardware by managing all network traffic more efficiently.

"If we can identify what type of traffic it is, we can change our approach to optimise that traffic," he explained.

"Riverbed is not making the backup or storage arrays, but we are making them run more efficiently on the network."

The Steelhead 7050 uses Riverbed's RiOS operating system to optimise traffic, as well as faster solid-state hard drives. Other new features include fault tolerance to manage drive failures, and support for 10Gb Ethernet cards and up to 100,000 connections.

Riverbed claimed that companies testing the device were able to boost throughput speeds by up to 2Gbit/s.

Rouda suggested that companies could also boost performance speeds and remedy common bottlenecks in the WAN setup.

"People's first reaction is that it is a network tool, but anywhere there is data moving across the network we can make it move faster," he said.

"Our message resonates very well with IT directors and chief information officers who are looking across the whole network."