Riverbed intros WDS solution for DR

BANGALORE, INDIA: WAN optimization solution provider, Riverbed Technology, Inc. wide-area data services (WDS) provider, has announced version 4.1 of Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) and the upcoming availability of a new Steelhead appliance, model 6120.

The enhancements in RiOS 4.1 and the new Steelhead appliance model 6120 build on Riverbed’s work with over 2,500 customers to solve the application performance and IT control dilemma that CIOs face as they confront the competing demands of an increasingly distributed workforce and the need to protect and control data.

As part of this release, Riverbed is delivering application-specific optimization for large-scale data transfers, that includes both hardware and software components. Riverbed has enhanced its RiOS software with disaster recovery intelligence and is introducing a new Steelhead appliance model 6120, which is optimized for disaster recovery.

In addition, Riverbed has introduced optimizations for Oracle11i applications, furthering its leadership in providing customers with the best performance for the applications important to their businesses. Lastly, for organizations that require high levels of security or face compliance requirements, RiOS 4.1 provides encryption capability for the data stored on disk in Steelhead appliances.

“This release from Riverbed brings together functionality that will help organizations both better plan for and respond in the event of a disaster,” said Arun Taneja, principal analyst at the Taneja Group. “The layering of application-specific optimizations for disaster recovery with hardware optimizations designed for heavy workloads is a breakthrough in WDS.”

“I’ve spoken with customers of Riverbed who utilize their Steelhead appliances for disaster recovery,” Taneja continued. “One of those customers, a medical device manufacturer with over 10,000 employees, reports that before Riverbed, the company could not replicate incremental backup to their disaster recovery site in the time available and they were unable to support DR. After installing Riverbed’s Steelhead appliances, the data transfer time was improved by 12X. Today, the company has a solid DR strategy and process in place that is made possible by Riverbed.”

Disaster Recovery Acceleration

Building on Riverbed’s patented technologies and existing disaster recovery capabilities, RiOS 4.1 now combines advanced optimization with a new set of behavioral traffic recognition features to enable adaptive acceleration based on the size and type of the data to be transferred. This dynamically-enabled acceleration is an industry first that automatically recognizes disaster recovery operations, such as data replication and backup jobs, to achieve even faster performance for large-scale data transfers.

Riverbed’s new Steelhead appliance model 6120 is designed for data-center-to-data-center transfers, while retaining the capability to support acceleration for branch offices and mobile workers. The Steelhead appliance model 6120 has a raw capacity of seven terabytes and a data store that is over three terabytes in size, doubling the capacity of Riverbed’s currently available largest Steelhead appliance model.

RiOS 4.1 and the Steelhead appliance 6120 working together offer unique benefits for disaster recovery operations. First, RiOS 4.1 performs more efficient reads of data on disk for replication workloads. Riverbed is able to do this because 4.1 recognizes replication workloads and enhances existing optimizations for data placement on disk.

Second, in response to replication workloads, Riverbed offers a replication-specific replacement algorithm for patterns on disk. And, lastly, alternative disk-based products often hit a cliff when overwhelmed with data-intensive workloads, creating a bottleneck and stalling replication processes. Riverbed intelligently “shock absorbs” these extreme workloads, resulting in much better performance and better protection of data.

“With the combination of the new disaster recovery functionality in RiOS 4.1 and the processing and storage capacity of the Steelhead appliance model 6120, we are able to deliver increased scalability for disaster recovery operations,” said Vivek Singh, Regional Director, India, at Riverbed.

“Enterprises that replicate very large data loads across distance require solutions that deliver in both software and hardware. When the data fire hose is turned on, RiOS 4.1 and the Steelhead appliance model 6120 working together are able to absorb the load, identify the traffic type and accelerate its transfer over the WAN—without becoming a bottleneck.”

“Customers in our RiOS 4.1 beta program have seen significant disaster recovery performance improvements,” continued Singh. “One of those companies, a major medical center, replicates  3 terabytes over a 20 MB circuit every day between regional hubs using NetApp’s SnapMirror. Prior to installing Riverbed’s Steelhead appliances, replication of the file took over 24 hours. With Steelhead appliances installed, the time to replicate improved by 10X.”

RiOS 4.1 now applies application-specific protocol optimization to Oracle Forms traffic, found throughout the Oracle E-Business application suite. By applying new acceleration techniques to the Oracle Jinitiator Web browser plug-in, RiOS can accelerate Oracle 11i applications that are built using Forms.

End-to-End Security

The security functionality in RiOS 4.1 builds on Riverbed’s extensive work in building solutions that ensure the security and integrity of enterprise data. With RiOS 4.1, Riverbed provides organizations with stringent security requirements an encryption capability for the data stored on disk in Steelhead appliances. Encryption standards supported include AES 128, 192 and 256-bit.

This combination of security features gives Riverbed customers the industry’s only WDS solution that preserves end-to-end security. The encrypt-to-disk functionality in RiOS 4.1 builds on Riverbed’s ability to accelerate SSL across the WAN without compromising the security trust model, and its existing support for site-to-site VPNs and site-to-site IPSEC option.

“With the release of RiOS 4.1, Riverbed is delivering an advanced, comprehensive set of secure application acceleration capabilities,” said Jon Olstik, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “Data is protected not only over the WAN, but it is also encrypted when it is resident as byte-level data sequences in the Steelhead appliances. This depth of security ensures that accelerated application data remains secure end-to-end as it is delivered from data centers to end users."