SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Oct 3, 2012) - [ Riverbed Technology ] (NASDAQ: [ RVBD ]), the performance company, today announced the integration of VMware vSphere® into its Riverbed® Steelhead® EX model appliances. This integration provides organizations with a single platform for simplified, centralized management of distributed virtual services at a lower total cost of ownership. When combined with the Granite™ edge virtual server infrastructure (edge-VSI), the integrated solution allows organizations to leverage the investments they have made in the data center and extend control and policy boundaries to the edge of the network. This approach reduces operating costs by centralizing and streamlining management of virtual services and data, and delivering services wherever and whenever needed without compromising performance.

Enterprises are increasingly consolidating and leveraging virtualization and cloud technologies to achieve greater cost efficiency, improve data protection, and manage resources centrally. At the same time, IT teams are challenged to dynamically deliver services to branches and end users as needed, while maintaining performance quality and the end-user experience. They want solutions that allow for the centralization of data with local execution, which Steelhead EX appliances running VMware vSphere and Granite deliver. It also provides a pathway for full virtualization and the realization of the software defined data center.

"Enterprises are building efficient, virtualized data centers to improve business agility in the face of an explosion of users, devices and data. By extending the virtual edge of the data center all the way to the branch, enterprises now have a holistic approach to creating a data center without walls. End users get the speed and performance they require, while IT manages from a simplified consolidated architecture. The result is a leaner, more productive business that enjoys end-to-end performance, reliability and security from the data center to the edge," said Steve Duplessie, Founder and Senior Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.

Enhanced Virtual Services Platform and Boot over the WAN Capabilities
Riverbed is enhancing the Virtual Services Platform (VSP) featured on Steelhead EX appliances through a new integration of VMware vSphere 5. This integration enables applications and services required in branch offices to be operated and managed on the virtual server solution directly on a Steelhead wide area network (WAN) optimization appliance. Locally executed virtual machines running on Steelhead EX appliances can now be centrally managed by the VMware vSphere vCenter™ Server, providing organizations with a single platform for simplified, centralized management of distributed virtual services at a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). Combined with the Granite edge-VSI solution, organizations can now consolidate and manage VMware vSphere-based virtual servers in the data center, yet boot and utilize required services across a WAN over distance. This new integration and support enables organizations to instantly provision branch services and storage for increased agility, high availability and improved disaster recovery (DR).

"Riverbed is a strategic partner that shares our software-defined data center vision. The software-defined data center is designed to deliver on the promise of an agile, elastic, efficient, and reliable virtualized IT environment. Riverbed is extending the vision by projecting software-defined infrastructure to the edge where it can be managed and provisioned centrally while delivering a local area network (LAN) experience," said Allwyn Sequeira, vice president and CTO, Networking and Security, VMware.

Bringing VMware vSphere to the Steelhead product family will enable customers to use the virtualization investments they've already made in the data center. The ability to project the virtual edge of the data center breaks down the old worldview that infrastructure in the data center was distinct and different than infrastructure in the branch. Now, customers can manage virtualized branch infrastructure as a logical and integrated extension of the data center.

"As a leading IT systems integrator with offices nationwide, Trace3 is benefitting from the integration of VMware vSphere® Hypervisor on the Steelhead EX appliance both as a customer of the solution and as a partner," said David Titov, director of professional services at Trace3. "Our own infrastructure team has been able to consolidate all edge servers back to our data center, yet boot and project needed services over the WAN as needed without the expense of deploying local IT resources. Trace3 customers have also long wanted to extend the virtual edge of the data center to the branch, and we can now deliver this all-in-one branch office solution thanks to Riverbed."

"Riverbed is extending the ability for enterprises to operate and deliver IT services at the edge," said John Martin, senior vice president of product management at Riverbed. "With this new solution, enterprises can deploy servers in the data center but execute at the edge. This allows them to quickly create complete virtual data centers, simplify management and provisioning while also extending those same benefits to branch offices."

For more information about the new Steelhead EX appliances, visit [ http://www.riverbed.com/us/products/steelhead_appliance/steelhead_ex.php ].

Availability
The new Steelhead EX appliance is expected to be generally available in Q4 2012.

Additional Resources

• [ Facebook ]
• [ LinkedIn ]
• [ Riverbed Blog ]
• [ Riverbed Community ] 
• [ Twitter ] (@Riverbed)
• [ YouTube ]

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the expected demand for Riverbed's products and services, statements regarding performance results of Riverbed solutions and customer cost savings following implementation of Riverbed solutions, including Steelhead EX model appliances, that may suggest likely or certain outcomes, and statements relating to Riverbed's ability to meet the needs of distributed organizations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include our ability to react to trends and challenges in our business and the markets in which we operate; our ability to anticipate market needs or develop new or enhanced products to meet those needs; the adoption rate of our products; our ability to establish and maintain successful relationships with our distribution partners; our ability to compete in our industry; fluctuations in demand, sales cycles and prices for our products and services; shortages or price fluctuations in our supply chain; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; general political, economic and market conditions and events; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in our documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. More information about these and other risks that may impact Riverbed's business are set forth in our Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on July 27, 2012. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Any future product, feature or related specification that may be referenced in this release are for information purposes only and are not commitments to deliver any technology or enhancement. Riverbed reserves the right to modify future product plans at any time.

About Riverbed
Riverbed delivers performance for the globally connected enterprise. With Riverbed, enterprises can successfully and intelligently implement strategic initiatives such as virtualization, consolidation, cloud computing, and disaster recovery without fear of compromising performance. By giving enterprises the platform they need to understand, optimize and consolidate their IT, Riverbed helps enterprises to build a fast, fluid and dynamic IT architecture that aligns with the business needs of the organization. Additional information about Riverbed (NASDAQ: [ RVBD ]) is available at [ www.riverbed.com ].

Riverbed and any Riverbed product or service name or logo used herein are trademarks of Riverbed Technology, Inc. All other trademarks used herein belong to their respective owners.

VMware, VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.