WAN Optimization Drives CloudSwitch, Riverbed Deal
Sometimes, it just makes sense for two companies to work together. In the case of CloudSwitch and Riverbed, they offer complementary technologies to common customers, who basically said, "CloudSwitch, you have a great, downloadable enterprise software appliance that enables us to treat the cloud as an extension of our datacenters, and Riverbed, your new Riverbed Cloud Steelhead appliance offers the kind of WAN optimization that we need to optimize our cloud connectivity."
Just like that--wedding bells.
The sell here for CloudSwitch--which installs in VMware and Xen environments--is strong security, and founder/VP of Products Ellen Rubin says the barriers to that are breaking down as users gain increasing confidence in cloud computing generally, and CloudSwitch specifically. The next challenge, however, is overcoming the relative paucity of network bandwidth required to streamlined cloud communications.
"Customers who think about cloud as remote data centers need better network performance," Rubin says.
That performance is now available via Riverbed Cloud Steelhead, which is compatible with ESX VMs. Riverbed says the appliance launches in the Amazon EC2 and Terremark clouds with "point-and-click simplicity," automatically integrating Cloud Steelhead with on-premise Riverbed infrastructure for optimized network performance, no matter what network architecture is in use.
"As part of the partnership, Riverbed solutions enable CloudSwitch customers to optimize their network performance for file access, data movement and application connectivity between cloud resources and internal data centers or private clouds," CloudSwitch said in a release. "In addition, customers can dramatically improve cost-effectiveness by reducing investments in network bandwidth required for cloud initiatives."
Rubin attributes some of the push behind this joint deal to two common CloudSwitch/Riverbed customers--a large financial services company and a big research firm--who urged their two suppliers to team up for the good of all parties.
On May 4, CloudSwitch and Riverbed are offering a live webinar entitled "Optimizing Your WAN Connectivity for Hybrid Cloud Deployments." It will include an architectural overview, customer use cases and a live product demo.
Posted by Bruce Hoard on 04/21/2011 at 12:48 PM