Riverbed in the Visionaries Quadrant of the 2012 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers

Riverbed announced today that it has been positioned by Gartner in the ‘Visionaries’ quadrant of the 2012  “Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers” authored by Neil Rickard, Bjarne Munch, and Joe Skorupa, and published in October, 2012. In the report, Gartner positions vendors in one of four quadrants - Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries and Niche Players - based on the companies’ vision and ability to execute on that vision.You can download the complete report here. The Magic Quadrant itself is shown below:
 



According to the report, “The application delivery controller has evolved into a key component of the data center architecture, and enterprises should evaluate ADCs based on how they integrate with this architecture and support more-advanced features, such as user and traffic control and monitoring.” 

The continued evolution of the datacenter architecture from a physical to a virtual and cloud environment requires enterprises to deploy ADCs that are more flexible, dynamic, and application-aware than ever before. Riverbed Stingray is designed to be deployed seamlessly across all IT architectures, including physical, virtual, cloud, software-defined, and hybrid data centers. The solution’s key differentiators are its flexible software and virtual form factors, the custom scripting capability that provides organizations with granular control over their applications, and advanced features such as web content optimization (WCO) and web application firewall security capabilities. 

While the industry recognition is much appreciated, Riverbed is not taking this for granted as our team of ~1600 individuals at Riverbed continues to work on improving existing products, develop new and exciting technology, and deliver top-notch technical support to our customer base of 19000+.

(Source: blog.riverbed.com)

Riverbed RiOS 7.0…to upgrade or not to upgrade, that is the FAQ

By Steve Evans

Riverbed is always adding new features.  Given their position in the magic “squares”, I’d expect them to be leading innovation.  But with such frequent upgrades, do you upgrade or not?  The new RiOS 7.0 has some stellar features that one could very well take advantage of.  And that really is the answer.  Can you take advantage of the new features?  If not, maybe you should wait.  Riverbed maintains several “tracks” of code so you should never be compelled to upgrade to a new major version just to stay current.  Your current major version is also being kept up to date with bug fixes and minor enhancements.  The following are all currently maintained major RiOS versions: 6.5, 6.1, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, and 4.1. 

Although I’ve had some recommend upgrading to the latest code, I prefer the more conservative route of upgrading to the latest code in the current release unless you are looking to gain access to features of a new major version.  Below is a list I compiled of the new features for 6.0, 6.1, 6.5, and 7.0 to help you decide if you would like to jump up to one of the newer versions.  If you are not interested in taking advantage of any of these new features, I recommend the latest RiOS version at your major release level.  If you would like some help deciding whether you need to upgrade, feel free to contact us and we’ll do a personalized assessment for you.

How about those engineering releases?  Are those safe?  Unlike the “Official Release” versions, the engineering releases have not yet undergone extensive Q&A testing.  However, usually they are worth considering due to the bug fixes they provide.  In my conversations with Riverbed engineers, I’m always encouraged to upgrade to the latest engineering release if it is available. Although I’ve never yet had a problem upgrading to the latest engineering release code, if you’re not currently having any problems, it’s probably best to stay on the “Official Release” version which has been extensively run through their Q&A process.  However, if you do upgrade and have an issue, don’t forget that the Riverbed allows you to easily boot back into the previous version.

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Riverbed Leads the Pack in WAN Optimization.

By David Mackey

You already know Riverbed has long been the WAN Optimization leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant.

Now they sell more appliances and virtual solutions than all their competitors combined.

The above graph is part of a larger report by Gartner. Contact Riverbed for the complete report.

Riverbed doesn’t dominate the field because they have the most magnetic marketing or the most efficient channel or the best financial backing. They lead because they demonstrate results. They say they can improve throughput to 7x and cut bandwidth consumption 90% and then prove it time and again.

Riverbed’s Steelhead products provide the most comprehensive approach to application acceleration and disaster recovery for any organization’s WAN. They go beyond simple optimization to help make IT infrastructure run faster, better, and more securely — in the data center, at a branch office, on a worker’s laptop, and in public and private clouds.

No stranger to the cloud, Riverbed’s Whitewater provides organizations with a fast, secure and cost-efficient method of integrating cloud storage into their existing backup infrastructure and disaster recovery strategies.

Riverbed Cascade provides application-aware network traffic management that enables end-to-end visibility into the performance of critical business applications. Cascade integrates end-to-end monitoring with deep packet capture and packet analysis for proactive alerting and robust network troubleshooting.

In fact, you could make a solid case that Riverbed understands packet capture and analysis better than any other company. They’ve brought together the three leading innovators in the field – Steve McCanne, co-creator of TCPDUMP, Loris Degioanni, inventor of WinPcap and Gerald Combs, creator of Wireshark – to continue the advancement of network performance management.

Riverbed’s most recent acquisition, Zeus software, helps enterprises to deliver fast, secure and available applications across any combination of physical, virtual and cloud infrastructures with a single point of application delivery control and monitoring. Zeus Traffic Manager will deploy on an enterprise’s own hardware or hypervisor, or in public, private, or hybrid cloud environments.

VistaOne proudly represents Riverbed as a value-added reseller, service provider and authorized training partner. Contact VistaOne for Riverbed products,services, and training.

Can Riverbed QoS Protect VoIP Across Two Paths? Yes!

By Steve Evans

VistaOne was asked by a client about how the Riverbed QoS handles the case where a Riverbed unit is in a HA configuration with two paths passing through it to two separate routers and circuits.  The specific item of interest is how it handles the case where one circuit is heavily loaded while the other is not. 

Will it apply bandwidth minimum guarantees on the congested circuit even through the aggregate bandwidth might only be 60%? That is, does it apply QoS to each interface independently or does it calculate and enforce it on the aggregate total? 

In the case of another QoS device used by the client, this situation requires them to manage the bandwidth for each path separately, which is less than ideal as it doubles the management footprint.

In this test we used a standard Riverbed classroom “pod” as used in the Riverbed Steelhead Appliance Deployment and Management class offered by VistaOne. Riverbed podA WAN simulator is used to simulate a 500Kbps circuit with 100ms of latency. 

We used a SHA-2020 as the branch unit since it has 2 bridged interface pairs allowing us to simulate two paths. IPERF with JPERF as a wrapper was used to generate traffic and measure results. One computer sends 500Kbps of UDP data to the server across the WAN simulator effectively clogging the WAN pipe with data.

A second computer sent a stream of UDP data at a rate of 80Kbps to simulate 2 VoIP phone calls. Packet delay and jitter was measured first without QoS, then again with QoS provided by the Riverbed units.

The QoS configuration here shows that the WAN bandwidth on both WAN interfaces is set to 500Kbps Riverbed QoS(1Mbps total aggregate bandwidth). Our test voice traffic was sent to port 6001 so we used that in the rule to assign it to the VoIP class. 

The VoIP class was then given a guarantee of 20% of the bandwidth or 100Kbps which is just above the bandwidth needed for our two voice calls.  VoIP is also assigned to the “realtime” latency priority.  Everything else was left at normal priority.

A successful test will show that the Riverbed can reduce the delay and jitter to acceptable levels even though the total bandwidth is only 50% of the aggregate bandwidth.  This would validate that QoS is handled on a per interface basis and that Riverbed QoS is up to the task of protecting VoIP.

100 Kbytes of 1470 byte, UDP datagrams were sent at a rate of 80Kbit/sec over 10 seconds.

What Makes for a Fantastic Class? Riverbed Has It!

By Steve Evans

Not only is VistaOne a Riverbed Platinum Partner, but we are also a Riverbed Authorized Training Partner.  And thus, I am in Atlanta this week teaching the Riverbed Steelhead Appliance Deployment and Management class.

I have taken a lot of classes in my “IT” career. If you’re in IT, I bet you have too. Have you ever been to a class that just seems to be a waste of time?  Like the class that is so “fluffy” it must have been written by marketing staff? 

Or the class which just wets your appetite but never actually gets into the details you want and need?  Or the class so full of boring lecture and devoid of interaction that you have to prop your eyes open with paperclips or risk drool emanating from mouth as your head nods in sleepiness?  Well, the Riverbed class is none of those.

When I took this class as a Riverbed customer, I was amazed how chock full of pertinent information it contained, how much hands-on lab work it contained and how I was actually required to think to solve problems. 

When I later went through the certification process to teach the class, I was further impressed by all the thought that is put into the class and labs, ensuring this the best class of its kind. I am continually amazed at the attention to details to ensure that not only is everything covered but covered in such a ways as to engage the student and convey maximum knowledge transfer and retention.

The content is actually up-to-date too! Riverbed added their newest OS release, Rios 6.0, to the class immediately after its release.