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Riverbed (Nasdaq:RVBD) provides solutions which improve and accelerate application performance for employees accessing data over wide area networks (WAN). ESG Lab recently completed interviews with a number of customers that are using Riverbed Wide-area Data Services (WDS) appliances deployed within production Cisco networks supporting valuable networking technologies including Power over Ethernet (PoE), Voice over IP (VOIP) and Quality of Service (QoS). This ESG Lab Field Audit documents the success that these Riverbed customers have experienced with a focus on configurations and installation experiences, which highlight Riverbed’s ability to compliment existing Cisco networks.
Delivering applications to remote and branch offices over a wide area network has historically been slow, expensive and complex. The problems associated with delivering IT services over a wide area network include:
- Poor performance for employees accessing applications over the WAN
- The recurring costs associated with congested WAN bandwidth
- The inability to consolidate and protect remote information assets
- The length of time needed to perform backups and replication over the WAN
A number of technologies have become available in recent years to address the challenges listed above. These technologies are generally known by a variety of names including Wide Area File System (WAFS), Wide-area Data Services (WDS) and WAN Optimization. Regardless of the name of the technology, ESG has spoken with a number of customers who are thrilled with the results. A recent ESG Research survey confirms the benefits reported by early adopters as shown in Figure One.
Riverbed WDS appliances deployed at either end of a wide area network use a variety of technologies including WAN optimization, data reduction, QoS and traffic shaping, application acceleration and optimization of transport and application protocols to improve application performance and WAN bandwidth utilization. WDS appliances routinely improve remote application performance between 5 and 50 times—and in some cases, up to 100 times—while simultaneously reducing bandwidth between 65% and 95%.
Since Riverbed’s founding in 2002, more than 2,000 customers, including 20 of the companies in the Fortune 500, have deployed WDS appliances. The vast majority of Riverbed customers are also Cisco customers. Riverbed WDS appliances are routinely deployed alongside existing Cisco switches and routers, supporting valuable networking technologies including:
Power over Ethernet (PoE)
PoE is used to transmit electrical power, along with data, over a standard twisted-pair cable in an Ethernet network. This technology simplifies the wiring and deployment of a variety of IP-connected devices including IP telephones, wireless access points, webcams and Ethernet hubs.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP)
VOIP routes voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network. Transmitting compressed voice data over an IP network is more efficient than traditional dedicated phone circuits and eliminates the need for separate wiring and PBX systems.
Quality of Service (QoS)
QoS refers to the control mechanisms used to prioritize the traffic associated with users and applications sharing a network. QoS is especially valuable when routing applications that require a fixed bit rate over a network with limited capacity (e.g. VOIP and streaming multi-media). Cisco has supported QoS in core switches and routers for years. Riverbed recently added QoS to the list of optional application acceleration technologies supported within WDS appliances.
ESG Lab recently spoke with four IT managers that have Riverbed appliances running in production environments. The organizations varied in size and complexity, from a regional civil engineering firm with 135 employees and four locations to a Fortune 500 corporation with more than 17,000 world-wide employees. The primary goal of this ESG Lab Field Audit was an assessment of the ease of installation and configuration of Riverbed appliances into an existing LAN and WAN infrastructure implemented using switches and routers from Cisco.
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