Steelhead Cloud Accelerator

“Cloud Steelhead transforms the public cloud into an extension of the data center by eliminating the barriers to enterprise-class public cloud deployments”

Cloud Steelhead removes barriers to enterprise-class public cloud deployments by combining market leading Riverbed WAN optimization with features that are purpose-built for public cloud environments. Those features include:

• Transparent cloud interception: Provides seamless integration into public cloud environments
• Flexible Cloud Pricing Model: Subscription pricing with terms as short as six months.
• Simple, portal-based management: Connect to Amazon Web Services and ESX-based public clouds to deploy Cloud Steelhead in just a few clicks
• Elastic sizing and easy Cloning: On-demand upgrades

Cloud Steelhead offers validated technical compatibility with a number of cloud service provider partners, including Terremark Cloud Computing, ZettaServe, and Xtium, and solution technology partners including CloudSwitch and Media Platform.

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 100x
• Best of breed solution combining Internet optimization with WAN optimization
• Leverage existing Riverbed and Akamai infrastructure with no need for additional hardware

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 100x.
• 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.