Riverbed Technology is growing the reach of its WAN optimization
capabilities, bringing support for Apple Mac users and XenApp from
Citrix Systems into its RiOS product.
RiOS is the software that runs Riverbed’s Steelhead WAN optimization
appliances, and the company rolled out version 6.0 of the software Oct.
19.
WAN optimization is used to accelerate various network traffic, such
as file sharing, which in turn improves network performance and as well
as consolidation, virtualization and collaboration capabilities,
according to Nik Rouda, senior product marketing manager at Riverbed.
The new version—the first for Riverbed in about a year—includes greater client support, including for Macs.
“Macs are becoming more commonplace in enterprises,” Rouda said in an interview. “It’s nice to get Mac users into the fold.”
With RiOS and the company’s Steelhead appliance, Mac users can see a 60-times improvement in uploading files.
In addition, RiOS now improves performance and bandwidth capabilities for businesses using Citrix’s XenApp product,
which enables the streaming of applications in a desktop virtualization
environment. With RiOS, users needs 50 percent less bandwidth to get
the same performance, which means that “customers can get twice as many
Citrix desktop instances on the network than they could” before, Rouda
said.
RiOS 6.0 also offers new HTTP functionality, which helps make such
applications as SAP’s Netweaver, SharePoint, Microsoft CRM, Agile and
Pivotal CRM as much as 20 times faster.
Oracle’s E-Business Suite 12 also is faster, by as much as 50 times, Rouda said.
RiOS 6.0 also helps in other areas, including disaster recovery and
business continuity, through partnerships with such storage vendors as
EMC, NetApp and Hitachi Data Systems. The software recognizes disaster
recovery traffic and enables more optimizations to improve throughput
and acceleration.
In addition, RiOS 6.0 lets a Steelhead appliance automatically
adjust compression and deduplication techniques for better throughput
and bandwidth use.
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