The Riverbed Blog

Does tape measure up?

Today's guest blogger is Thomas Bakewell, Riverbed's CIO.

Does Tape Measure Up?

I admit I have a small group of friends, mostly IT types.  Recently at dinner, three of the four adults were all IT executives (the kids smirked when we tried to talk techie).  The subject came around to IT disaster recovery preparedness.  Clearly there was either not enough, or too much wine.  As you can imagine the conversation started with the right idea, but the wrong media; tape.  Since this is my BLOG, I get to say what three things I hate about tape:

1. Tape measure home runs hit against the Giants;
2. That thing I use to confirm I ate too many slices of pie at Thanksgiving;
3. The false sense of security you get thinking that tape is the first form of data protection.

Beginning with the right idea is always a good start, and that is with a simple and fundamental question:  “What will your response be when disaster hits your organization, or your legal team wants to examine and hold all documents relating to pending litigation, or one of your executives has lost all of their email?“  Our response typically revolves around risk management, data protection, recovery point and recovery time objectives.  Necessary components of any DR plan to be sure, but wholly insufficient in terms of maintaining the health, operation and overall viability of your company.  Each of us in IT understands a few well-kept secrets about technology.  One of which is the efficacy of tape. We all know that a tape measure has an increasing scale – think of magnetic tape the same way.  Tape is simple to think about, easy to use, growing ever more expensive to maintain, and absolutely problematic to rely on.

Under today’s, and likely tomorrow’s economic conditions – spending pressures, global competition, always on environment and ever increasing urgencies around time to market – the current metaphor of data recovery is no longer acceptable.  The role of IT therefore can no longer be confined to DR, but rather to overall business continuity.  The questions raised above need to be re-thought.  We must now ask a different set of questions; “when a disaster strikes, how do I continue to service my customers, electronically interact with my partners, develop and market product all while I restore my IT world behind the scene?”  Data protection is my first order of business, not tape.

As the head of IT in an IT performance company I get the opportunity to use our products, provide feedback and ultimately help in the overall quality and direction that we take.  You all know of our market-leading WAN optimization products.  And yes, of course, I use our Steelhead’s throughout my infrastructure.  In addition to Steelheads and Cascade, our network performance management suite of tools, we have recently completed the implementation of Whitewater, our new cloud storage product.  Whitewater is one of those products that come along every so often that has an immediate and sustained impact on IT. 

Like all of you, I have a backup strategy and set of tools that are in place and with a trained staff to support.  Like most of you, the target for my backup tools has been tape.  As I have said earlier, tape cannot be thought of as the first form of data protection.  In reality, moving data from your production data center to a DR data center is the first form of data protection.  And yes, we move our data very efficiently through our Steelheads from one data center to the other.  That said, moving data is just the first step.  With Whitewater I have been able to back both my production and DR data to the cloud.  We began with backing up our DR data.  This exercise took about an afternoon to setup two Whitewater appliances, provision storage and begin backing up the data.  Not too bad for a half day’s work!  Today, we are backing up our production data as well.  Some key points to consider:

• We have deployed Whitewater without any change to our existing backup software.  No loss of knowledge and no new technology to learn.
• We’ve reduced our data protection costs and at the same time met accelerated recovery SLA’s.  We can recover from virtually anywhere.
• We have simplified and secured our data storage for DR and recovery. 

While no one wants a disaster and each of us does all we can to avoid them, I know that while others are waiting for tapes to be retrieved and mounted, I am already restored.  While others are testing and hoping that the tape is viable, Riverbed is meeting the needs of our customers.  And, while others are struggling with making sure they have restored all of their data in the right order, we are continuing to operate globally, competing and winning even in the toughest of times. 

My migration from tape is complete, with the possible exception of that Thanksgiving thing… Maybe my next BLOG will be in January.  News Year resolutions of a CIO… now that’s a dinner conversation just waiting to happen.

 

 

Zeus Partner Perks

Continuing our series of posts introducing one of our latest acquisitions, Zeus Technology, today we thought we’d take a look at the robust partnerships Zeus has established that further advance the flexibility and performance of our new ADC offering.

Zeus’ partner program, which includes resellers, cloud providers and technology partners, helped make its ADC technology increasingly accessible for users all over the world through partners in Japan, Africa, India, and beyond. With the growing uptake in cloud services, however, it was in this area where Zeus really gained traction.

Adoption of cloud computing is expected to reach 80-90 percent in the next five years, according to an AFCOM survey, so, naturally, more and more companies are looking for solutions to keep their applications and services up and running in the cloud, even during high spikes in demand. As a pure-software solution, Zeus was the only suitable ADC provider for such flexible environments, making it the ideal solution and, thus, the leader in cloud-based ADC. Steve Steinke, 451 Group Analyst, even called Zeus the “poster child of software DCCAs” (data center communication accelerators).

By partnering with leading cloud providers, including Amazon, RightScale, Joyent, GoGrid, SunGard, Voxel, etc. -  the list goes on and on - businesses have access to Zeus’ flexible and easily-deployable load balancing technology, so they can better deliver fast, secure and available Web applications. Having such a flexible solution helps Zeus meet cloud providers customers’ varying cloud needs, particularly those that have multi-cloud environments or advanced cloud requirements, such as cloud bursting or cloud balancing. With such capabilities, end users can easily scale cloud capacity to meet various traffic demands, as well as shift capacity to another cloud in the event of an outage.

One reason cloud balancing is becoming increasingly important is because it ensures customers have uninterrupted service for their cloud-based applications. And, with all the recent cloud outages plaguing companies across a wide range of industries, this is becoming all the more important. By partnering with Zeus, cloud providers can prevent customers from suffering downtime by balancing resources and incoming requests across different availability zones within their own cloud, with another cloud provider, or even with the customer’s own data center. It’s the simple “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” approach and cloud providers, like those partnering with Zeus, are quickly catching on and realizing the benefits of such intelligent ADC technology.

Zeus’ partnerships, enabled by the technology’s flexibility, scalability and reliability, have been a critical factor in the company’s success, especially with the continued growth and adoption of cloud computing. But, don’t take our word for it; check out this video of what Zeus’ partners are saying.

 

Bandwidth Confessionals

Hello Riverbed followers...my name is Sabrina and I just recently joined the Riverbed blogging team. I am a business development rep, as part of the corporate sales team, in San Francisco. My day consists of calling prospective customers and uncovering opportunities for our regional sales managers in the Southeast region (I'm that person who calls and interrupts your workday to find out if you are interested in Riverbed's solutions).  I'm very excited to be contributing to our blog and hope you will enjoy my perspective and insights. Now, without further ado, my first post...

 

I'm going to ask you a question and I want an honest answer. This is a safe space, no judgement here.  Ok, ready?  Have you ever upgraded your bandwidth , even though you knew it wasn't going to solve your latency problems? 

If you said yes, it's okay. Everybody has done it and it's nothing to be ashamed of. Your intentions were good, and besides, it gave you a reprieve from all those user complaints. But then, after awhile, they started again, didn't they? 

And now you are right back where you started from, thinking about going back to bandwidth. Do you really think things will be different this time? Sure, there will be the honeymoon period, but eventually you will be right back where you started, broken promises and shattered dreams. I'm begging you, don't do it, don't go back to bandwidth!

As much as you want it to, bandwidth will not solve your problems. I know it's comfortable, it's safe,   everybody knows bandwidth, but it's not right for you. Is bandwidth going to address all those TCP applications whose chatty behavior is causing your end users to waste valuable time waiting for apps to load or files to transfer? And do you honestly believe bandwidth will ever be able to address the latency problem? I don't care how big your pipe is, those applications still need to go back and forth across the WAN and having more space will only make their trip more comfortable, not faster.

Imagine you have to transport 100 of your employees from HQ to a remote office that is 3,000 miles away. You want to get all of them there as quickly as possible. You have two travel options:

1) A volkswagon bug and a four-lane high way, or... 

2) A Greyhound bus and a single lane highway.

Option 2 right? It's a no-brainer. The situation is no different with your WAN. Upgrading bandwidth is like choosing option 1 and implementing a WAN optimization solution is like choosing option 2.

 

What about cost you say?    This chart shows the  calculations done by the law firm Allen Matkins. They found that "the cost of deploying the Riverbed Steelhead solution would be 70% less expensive than the cost of implementing a bandwidth upgrade. Annual operating costs for the Riverbed Steelhead solution are a staggering 88% less expensive than the bandwidth upgrade.(Case Study: AllenMatkins).

I'm glad we were able to have this little chat today. I care about you,everybody here at Riverbed cares, and we don't want to see you go back to bandwidth. You deserve so much better.

 

Calculate your companies potential bandwidth savings by using our ROI Calculator

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introducing the Riverbed Customer Network (RCN)

I can go on and on about the many customer programs at Riverbed.  From the regional user groups to customer advisory boards to the advanced access program, Riverbed is well connected to it's customers.  

Riverbed Group Marketing Manager Irene Yam has put together an awesome lineup of programs that assist customers in making the most out of their Riverbed deployment.  Irene and her team recently produced this short video clip that introduces these programs under the Riverbed Customer Network or RCN moniker.

 

Aptimize: Supercharging Your SharePoint Performance!

Do you have issues with Microsoft SharePoint environment performance?  While SharePoint is an amazing collaboration tool with loads of rich features, oftentimes long distances and bandwidth limitations can get in the way of delivering the best possible SharePoint experience to remote workers. 

No one likes to wait, and delays will drive users’ behavior.  If SharePoint is too slow, dissatisfied employees won’t use it as much as they could, might open IT tickets in complaint, or may even abandon it entirely.  This can result in productivity losses and missed opportunities in SharePoint deployments.  What to do?
 
Enter Riverbed!
 
Steelhead WAN optimization has been able to improve SharePoint performance for branch office workers with data reduction, HTTP protocol features, and even application specific tuning to accelerate authentication for example.
 
Now complementing Steelhead is our new Aptimize web content optimization software, which can immediately deliver additional performanceimprovements when installed on the SharePoint server.  Aptimize also has the advantage of being able to optimize asymmetrically (nothing required on the client side!)

 
Aptimize will help SharePoint by:

• Merging web page files for fewer roundtrips
• Shrinking and compressing these files to reduce data quantity
• Increasing browser caching to reduce reload times
• Tuning the page layout to display first things first

 
The results speak for themselves:

• Up to 76% reduction in load times
• Up to 43% less traffic
• AND happier and more productive SharePoint users

 So whether you are a Steelhead customer today or new to Riverbed and looking for a fresh approach, here’s your chance to supercharge your SharePoint environment!
 
Reach out to your local Riverbed representative to learn more.

Riverbed on Cloud Cover TV

Good Monday morning! Evan Marcus, esteemed caretaker of this here fine blog, recently updated our posting schedules. Since I rather enjoy writing, I volunteered for an every-other-Monday slot. Coincidentally, then, I've got something to share with you: our first interview on Cloud Cover TV.

I've known Jo Maitland, executive editor at SearchCloudComputing.com, ever since my days at Amazon Web Services. Recently I joined her at TechTarget's San Francisco studios for an in-person interview. We discussed a range of topics, covering the state of cloud security and Riverbed's broadening of its product portfolio. Also we talked about why I felt the time was right to take what I learned during my 18 months at AWS and apply that to what I see as the next major barrier to cloud computing: performance. While security still tops all surveys asking respondents what's stopping them from moving to the cloud, I'm having trouble squaring that with what I've actually seen: large enterprises in verticals handing sensitive information are already running production workloads on various clouds. And for many of these customers, once they design proper security, performance is usually the next hurdle to tackle. Moving data fast is what we do best here at Riverbed. As companies migrate their IT into the cloud, I can't imagine a better place to work.

Anyway, please enjoy the interview. And let us know what you think, we love feedback!

Get Cascade management visibility directly on your iPhone, iPad, or Android!

In this day and age where every IT professional has at least one of the above-listed devices, having the ability to perform actual work on them, rather than just playing Angry Birds all day, can be a real benefit.

Riverbed® Cascade® provides a cost-effective, enterprise-wide solution for network visibility and performance management. To deliver the performance that the business needs, network and application teams need complete visibility into the applications, servers, and users on their network. Cascade fulfills this need with network monitoring, network traffic recording and analysis, discovery and dependency mapping and troubleshooting capabilities that collect traffic data on the network and alert network managers to problems before business is impacted.

This functionality can be made all the more "highly available" and "real time" through the use of devices like the iPhone, iPad and Android phones & tablets as mobile terminals to access and monitor the Cascade system. Below are some sample screenshots that illustrate just how useful this can be :

1. Multiple active alerts shown on the Service Dashboard :

2. Tracing the source of the problem :

 

3. Interface Utilization report :

4. Network Operations Dashboard :

and Zoomed in for a closer look :

5. being notified of a WORM outbreak :

6. Locating the source of the outbreak :

7. Tracking down the computers involved and affected :

So as you can see, the Riverbed Cascade system can be extremely useful when accessed remotely by any kind of HTTPS capable browser device, like Apple and Android terminals. Since there's no Java and no executable files required to run in the browser, any device like these can access and run Cascade to the fullest effect, truly empowering your mobile IT operations workforce with critical, real time information about your network.

Why We Picked Zeus as Riverbed’s ADC Technology

We kicked off our series on Zeus last week with a primer on ADC technology. Delving into this topic a bit more, in this week’s post we'll explain why, in our eyes, Zeus stood head-and-shoulders above its competitors. Here’s a quick hint, it might have something to do with the fact that Zeus was the leader in providing the most effective and versatile ADC solutions on the market.

Zeus’ technology runs on a wide variety of operating systems and can function in just about any infrastructure environment, physical, cloud, or hybrid. Once deployed, Zeus sits on the front-end of an organization’s internal infrastructure: the user- or Web- facing processes. When you enter your user name into a website form, for instance, you are interfacing with the front-end of the IT infrastructure. This front-end, in turn, relays information to the back-end, where much of the processing happens, as shown below.

This deployment is typical of most load balancers. But since ADCs sit at the point that connects users to business services and data, selecting the best solution is not a decision to be made lightly. Zeus Technology, now part of Riverbed, carved its market niche as the best load balancing and traffic management solution for the job for two main reasons. 

A software-based application's performance is typically comparable to a hardware-based solution. Zeus’ software meets and often exceeds the performance of its hardware counterparts. But the unique assets that Zeus brings to organizations are business agility and new opportunities. In fact, earlier this year, Zeus commissioned the analyst firm Ptak, Noel & Associates to research why its customers selected Zeus, and its findings specifically identified those assets as primary reasons.  

Many of Zeus’ customers started using ADC as a hardware appliance, but came to Zeus looking for a solution that allowed them to scale capacity without impacting the end user’s experience. Hardware-based solutions typically employ an active-passive model of scaling capability, which means customers have to buy units in pairs – one active and one standby unit. But this model forces customers to buy two units, even in situations when IT organizations only exceed their current capacity by a small amount to ensure availability if one device fails.  Because Zeus is a pure software solution, it can instantly scale up or down to accommodate changes in demand, enabling agility, without the need for costly installations or standby equipment.

Nowadays, technology changes at lightning speeds and software makes it easier an organization change right along with it. Software makes upgrades quick and easy, and doesn’t burden organizations with having to resell obsolete hardware to recoup sunk costs.  IT organizations who use hardware-based appliances must also deal with shared load balancing, an approach that is not adequate for business-critical applications.  Unfortunately, it’s the only option for hardware appliances that cannot provide the fine-grained control that's needed to properly implement these technologies.  Without the advanced management of software-based application delivery, public cloud infrastructures become risky and inefficient.

There was recently a lively discussion on the NANOG (North American Network Operators’ Group) mailing list, comparing the various options for a load balancing solution. The original poster was considering an open source option, but several of Zeus’ customers chimed in, recommending Zeus’ technology because it can be deployed on hardware, in a hybrid scenario, or a fully virtualized cloud platform.  It was described as the most versatile and adaptable option for nearly any scenario. 

We believe that this tells the whole story. The best endorsement for technology comes from those who use it. So we’ll leave you with a quote straight from the proverbial “horse’s mouth.”

“The decision to implement Zeus was critical in our migration to a virtual infrastructure because its solution is completely software-based and has maximum portability,” says Tim Maliyil,CEO, AlertBoot. “With Zeus, we’re able to handle the same – if not greater loads – and we have never had a single glitch. We’re now completely convinced there’s no need to stick with expensive hardware solutions.”

Join us again next week for a discussion on how Zeus’ partnerships benefit the Riverbed community.

New stuff in the Community

We've made some changes to the Riverbed Community that we'd like everyone to know about.

1) We've created a new board called Help the Newbies.  It's a general question and answer board.  Got a question?  Ask it here.  Do you know the answer to someone else's question?  Answer it here. Don't wait for someone else to answer it; if you know the answer, just shout it out! 

The idea is that there are no stupid questions, just stuff that somebody else doesn't know. 

2) We've created a second new board.  This one is called The Community Cafe.   It's a socially focused board, where we encourage people to introduce themselves to the community.  You can tell us a little about yourself, your background, your family, and your use of Riverbed products.  (And if you have a superpower, be sure to mention that too.)

Nothing fancy required, and don't share anything unless you're comfortable doing so.

We're trying to make our Community a friendlier place.  If you have any suggestions that might help us in that area, don't be shy.  You can make those suggestions at Forum Guidelines and Feedback.

See you in the Community!

Riverbed is looking for beta testers!

While I can't share any details about future products in this blog post, I can tell you that we are looking for customers that are interested in beta testing Riverbed's new products and software updates.  

If you are a Riverbed customer and are interested in getting early access to new features and products, please submit your request for participation by filling out and and submitting this online form. Once you submit your completed online form, a Riverbed product manager will follow up with you with more information.

I hope to see you as a participant in the Riverbed beta program!

Bob Gilbert, Riverbed Technology