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SaaS Cloud Acceleration

Delivering local performance to SaaS applications

For all the great benefits of software as a service (SaaS) there’s one big drawback: application data travels across the public Internet, which is not as reliable and as fast as a private IP WAN that typically connects branch offices. Steelhead® Cloud Accelerator software is the first and only solution to accelerate SaaS applications for Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps, and Salesforce.com both across the WAN and the Internet by up to 50x while decreasing bandwidth utilization by up to 98%.

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Technology Overview

  • Performance across greater distance: Using SaaS brings in a similar challenge as application centralization when it comes to great and consistent performance. As soon as the users are further away from the applications they’re accessing, the inefficiencies of TCP/IP and additional latency lower application performance.

    Better performance for end-users

    • Riverbed Technology and Akamai have partnered to deliver a solution that combines the best of breed in private WAN optimization with the best in breed public Internet optimization to overcome the challenges of running applications over the public internet.
    • LAN-like performance accelerates SaaS application performance up to 50x regardless of location
    • Extends Riverbed® Optimization System (RiOS) into the cloud to offer consistent performance for applications hosted in the private or public cloud

    Easy "light touch" deployment and management

    • Simple installation and configuration does not require any involvement from the SaaS provider or Akamai to deploy
    • Centrally manage all instances through a single cloud portal

    Enhanced security, availability, and efficiency

    • Akamai technology provides a secure connection with a 100% SLA to deliver application performance without compromise.

    SaaS cloud acceleration flow image

    Figure 1: SaaS applications perform as if they were hosted locally, overcoming the delays of the public Internet.

    "With Riverbed/Akamai Steelhead Cloud Accelerator, employees in Asia and Europe accessing Office 365 hosted in Virginia feel as if the DC was next to them."
    — SKF, Swedish bearing manufacturer

    Learn more about Steelhead Cloud Accelerator.

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  • Shrinking budgets that drive IT consolidation initiatives are leading to the rapid adoption of a hybrid cloud model, where applications are delivered across some combination of a company’s own traditional data centers, as well as public cloud environments. In order to unlock the cost savings promised by cloud services, enterprises are seeking ways to make use of infrastructure elasticity – using on-demand bursting to meet peaks in demand, using multiple geographically dispersed cloud infrastructures. Software as a service (SaaS) is one of the key technology trends that customers are deploying to outsource some enterprise application needs such as sales operations (eg : Salesforce.com) or even traditional enterprise applications (Office 365).

    The similarities between private data centers and public cloud data centers forces users further from their data and this distance causes difficulties due to the constraints of bandwidth and latency on the network. While customers may be used to improved performance within their private clouds with the use of WAN optimization, they are looking for a similar solution as they move to public clouds or employ some combination of public and private clouds.

    The Steelhead Cloud Accelerator is a first of its kind solution jointly developed by Riverbed and Akamai that combines award winning and market leading WAN optimization technology, the Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS), from Riverbed with Akamai’s best-in-class internet route optimization technology (SureRoute) for accelerating SaaS application performance to the end user. This solution is a license add-on to existing Steelhead appliance deployments and does not require any changes in the way Steelhead appliances are deployed today or any changes on the SaaS provider’s infrastructure. RiOS will be installed on Akamai’s SureRoute gateways to be activated whenever a customer purchases a license. The RiOS instance on the Akamai gateway will then optimize content and applications to the Steelhead appliance deployed within the customer’s enterprise network.

    This offering is priced on a subscription basis in keeping with the model SaaS providers typically price and sell their offerings.

    Highlights of the Steelhead Cloud Accelerator Include:

    • Improve performance of SaaS applications by up to 50x
    • Best of breed solution combining Internet optimization with WAN optimization
    • Leverage existing Riverbed and Akamai infrastructure with no need for additional hardware
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  • Steelhead Cloud Accelerator features a number of distinct elements that set it apart from the competition.

    These Include:

    • Optimization everywhere – Regardless of where end users are located, what applications they are using, or where the applications reside, end users get optimal application performance. Steelhead Cloud Accelerator delivers fast, secure and available applications for software as a service providers like Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps, and Salesforce.com.
    • Overcome network performance constraints - Realize the promise of cloud for applications on-demand and balance across multiple clouds, keeping end users productive and happy with accelerated SaaS performance. The Award-winning RiOS optimization combined with the Akamai network can accelerate applications up to 50x.
    • Leverage existing infrastructure investment - Accelerate your SaaS applications easily, without requiring any configuration changes or rip-and-replace of existing hardware. Take advantage of the economics of cloud by seamlessly delivering applications than span both public and private infrastructures.
    • Save on bandwidth - Reduce traffic on backhaul links, and obviate the need for bandwidth upgrades.
    • Combine the best Internet optimization with the best WAN optimization. Akamai’s Sure Route technology finds the best route between the end user and the SaaS provider often minimizing transit for data to a single network hop. This combined with Riverbed’s deduplication and application acceleration technology makes enterprises feel like they are hosting SaaS applications within their own data centers.
    • Leverage Akamai’s deployment footprint. Use Akamai’s hundreds of thousands of content caching servers to get as close to the SaaS provider’s data center as possible for complete end-to-end optimization of data from the service provider’s gateway direct to the enterprise user.
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Riverbed. WAN optimization for your network: Application acceleration, WAN bandwidth optimization, and IT consolidation. Riverbed is the IT performance company. WAN optimization solutions from Riverbed liberate businesses from common IT constraints by increasing application performance, enabling consolidation, and providing enterprise-wide network and application visibility – all while eliminating the need to increase bandwidth, storage or servers. Thousands of companies trust Riverbed to deliver greater productivity and cost savings by making their IT infrastructure faster, less expensive and more responsive. Riverbed solutions are also available as managed services through select providers.