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.

Video & software updates devouring your bandwidth?

By David Mackey

You’ve seen a marked rise in video use for both instruction and entertainment. And you see the same software updates come through for every desktop on your WAN. Software updates by Microsoft and others make up a surprisingly significant percentage of all Internet traffic.

Here’s another reason to consider updating your traffic shaper. The new version of the Exinda OS includes acceleration via edge caching.

Exinda’s unified performance management (UPM) solution assembles a suite of advanced DPI visibility, traffic shaping and WAN optimization technologies into a single appliance with a simple GUI. The latest release expands optimization scalability, significantly increasing the number of accelerated connections per appliance. Most models can reach 10Gbps throughput.

Edge Cache
The Exinda Edge Cache improves the speed and performance of Internet applications by locally caching video, images and other regularly requested content from the Internet. Using a single appliance at the branch or data center, IT departments can download once, and pre-populate content such as software updates in the cache. Caching can be turned on per policy, allowing Exinda administrators to choose exactly the types of files they want to cache.

 By eliminating repetitive downloads, the Exinda Edge Cache dramatically improves the speed and performance of Internet applications. Users have seen as much as 80% reduction in http traffic over the WAN, and more than 35% reduction in video and other content.

Network Intelligence
It also offers cache statistics such as how cacheable the network data is, how frequently the cache is being accessed and by how many hosts, helping organizations to understand the nature of their network traffic over time. Combining QoS, caching and the proper visibility to understand the behavior and utilization of the network gives organizations a complete robust solution.

Get a look at all the new features in Exinda’s latest operating system. Request a hands-on demonstration and conversation.