Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Networking
    • Storage
    • Virtualization

    Riverbed Granite Speeds Up WAN Storage

    By
    Frank J. Ohlhorst
    -
    February 3, 2012
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Well-known for its application acceleration products, Riverbed Technology delves into the next logical phase of speeding up traffic across WANs with its new accelerator technology, called Granite. Simply put, Riverbed’s Granite does for WAN storage, what Riverbed’s Steelhead does for application over the WAN€”acceleration.

      Riverbed Granite’s primary purpose is to improve storage performance across the WAN. It accomplishes that by carrying out block data transfers across WANs without the many back-and-forth exchanges that make such movements time-consuming now. Granite can essentially achieve the same thing with blocks of data that Riverbed’s Steelhead appliance does with applications, slashing wait times at branches, which can also provide the foundation for enterprises to centralize their storage.

      Eric Wolford, executive vice president and general manager of the company’s products group told eWEEK: “Granite’s ability to accelerate storage is only part of the story. Granite will also improve virtual desktop performance over long distances, making VDI [virtual desktop infrastructure] possible for many more remote users.”

      The technology should prove to be very important to enterprises as a way to consolidate data centers, improve branch-office and remote-user experiences and ultimately reduce costs by better using bandwidth and reducing the number of data centers needed by an enterprise.

      What’s more, enterprises should realize additional savings in the form of reduced management costs, better leveraging of virtualization technologies and a cumulative reduction in power usage from a reduced hardware footprint.

      “Granite will help to project data center storage to the edge of the network, so that the edge thinks that the disk is actually local,” said Wolford. “Performance gains are provided by changing how a server typically gets data from a storage array. Granite, using its awareness of the file system, allows the remote server to retrieve all the required blocks of data in one round-trip transaction, instead of making the server work with storage blocks to requests the bits from each block in sequence. Over a WAN, that process can take a long time because messages and data need to travel over a long distance.”

      Granite’s ability to remove the €œchattiness€ of storage transactions helps to reduce the realized latency of moving data from storage across a WAN to a server. That allows enterprises to take full advantage of the speed available on their current WAN links.

      Riverbed recently demonstrated Granite’s effectiveness at a Feb. 1 press event in San Francisco by showing 200MB of files being copied to a remote server from a data center in a few seconds, and booting up a remote system from a Windows 2008 OS stored in the data center in about 40 seconds. Although not a definitive test, the demonstration did show that storage performance was increased multifold by the technology.

      Granite can be used for centralizing resources in three key cases that Riverbed’s other products were unable to address: custom applications, write-intensive applications, and the need to keep working at the remote site if disconnected from the data center, Wolford said.

      When the technology ships in the end of March, Granite will initially use iSCSI for block storage transfers across the WAN, but the company plans later to add Fibre Channel capability. It can bring that data to servers using Microsoft New Technology File System (NTFS), with Linux Extended File System (EXT) coming later. Enterprises will be able to get started with Granite for less than $12,000, according to Senior Product Marketing Manager Miles Kelly.

      Frank J. Ohlhorst
      Frank Ohlhorst is an award-winning technology journalist and IT industry analyst, with extensive experience as a business consultant, editor, author, and blogger. Frank works with both technology startups and established technology ventures, helping them to build channel programs, launch products, validate product quality, create marketing materials, author case studies, eBooks and white papers.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      Alteryx’s Suresh Vittal on the Democratization of...

      James Maguire - May 31, 2022 0
      I spoke with Suresh Vittal, Chief Product Officer at Alteryx, about the industry mega-shift toward making data analytics tools accessible to a company’s complete...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×