AppResponse 11.21 and xx90 Appliances: Scalable Observability and a Foundation for AIOps
- By Chuck Smith
- 11-Jul-2025
In a digital world driven by distributed applications, hybrid infrastructures, and rising user expectations, IT teams need tools that scale without compromise. With the release of AppResponse 11.21 and the new xx90 hardware appliances, Riverbed delivers a transformative leap in network and application observability – engineered to meet modern performance demands and support diverse deployment needs.
From Forensics to Foresight
Packets remain the gold standard for network analysis. They offer an unfiltered, high-fidelity view of interactions across the network, empowering IT to troubleshoot, investigate security incidents, and validate application performance with confidence. AppResponse captures every packet, analyzes data in real time, and retains it for historical review, enabling both immediate triage and deep forensic insight.
Whether troubleshooting a video conference issue or auditing a security incident, AppResponse gives teams the clarity and confidence to act decisively. By unifying continuous packet capture with real-time analytics, long-term storage, and rich visualization tools, AppResponse allows organizations to move from reactive troubleshooting to proactive and intelligent network management:
- Persistent packet capture with high-speed retention
- Visual dashboards for time-series and application-layer insights
- Easy integration with Packet Analyzer Plus for in-depth trace file analysis
It’s more than a monitoring tool. It’s a forensic engine with operational speed.
Built to Scale: Performance Without Bottlenecks
At the heart of this release is the next-generation xx90 hardware appliances, purpose-built for organizations that demand high throughput, high resolution, and full visibility – all at once. AppResponse 11.21 leverages the xx90 hardware to deliver exceptional performance, including:
- Over 50 Gbps of sustained packet capture—a 20% to 140% increase over the xx80 family
- 60 Gbps of ASA (Application Stream Analysis) throughput—a 20% to 70% increase over xx80
- Support for up to 6 million TCP connections per minute—a 20% to 70% increase over xx80
- Scalable storage exceeding 2 PB with modular Storage Units (SUs)
What sets the new xx90 hardware and 11.21 software update apart is not just raw speed, but concurrency. Unlike other solutions that force a trade-off between capture and analysis, AppResponse 11.21 on xx90 appliances performs packet capture and analysis simultaneously. This enables real-time analytics without compromising forensic depth, ideal for fast triage and deep post-incident analysis.
AppResponse 11.21 at a Glance
The table below highlights the performance capabilities of the AppResponse 11.21 release across the xx90 appliance family, including improvements in capture and analysis as well as connection handling. Performance gains over previous-generation Riverbed appliances are in parentheses.
| Appliance Model | Packet Capture | Analysis Performance (bps) | TCP Connections/Min |
| 2190 | 2.4 Gbps (+20%) | 1.4 bps (+20%) | 1 M (+20%) |
| 4190 | 9.6 Gbps (+20%) | 2.1 bps (+20%) | 1.5 M (+20%) |
| 8190 x 1 SU | 16 Gbps (+25%) | 10 bps (+70%) | 6 M (+70%) |
| 8190 x 2 SU | 32 Gbps (+57%) | 10 bps (+70%) | 6 M (+70%) |
| 8190 x 3 SU | 50 Gbps (+140%) | 10 bps (+70%) | 6 M (+70%) |
| 8190 x 4 SU+ | 50 Gbps* (+140%) | 10 bps (+70%) | 6 M (+70%) |
* Final results expected to be higher
Broad Deployment Support
AppResponse 11.21 isn’t limited to the new xx90 appliances. The release also supports existing xx80 appliances as well as virtual deployments on hypervisors and cloud-based implementations in AWS, Azure, and GCP. This flexibility ensures that organizations can adopt AppResponse 11.21 in the way that best aligns with their infrastructure strategy – whether it’s modernizing with new high-performance hardware or extending visibility into cloud workloads.
Simplified Access with Flex Licensing
To meet the needs of growing and dynamic organizations, AppResponse 11.21 and the xx90 appliances are part of Riverbed’s Flex Licensing options. This subscription-based model allows customers to:
- Deploy capacity where needed as requirements change – across hardware, virtual, or cloud
- Simplify budget planning with predictable OPEX costs
- Future-proof architecture and product transitions
- Scale usage up or down over time with pooled license options
Flex Licensing aligns your investment with your operational reality, whether you’re optimizing for performance, resilience, or an AIOps strategy.
Scalable Observability with a Vision for the Future
AppResponse 11.21 offers more than high-speed packet analysis—it lays the groundwork for AI-driven IT operations. By combining high-fidelity data, scalable infrastructure, and seamless integration with Riverbed IQ, organizations gain intelligent automation, context-rich incident response, and predictive analytics that streamline performance management and reduce operational noise.
Whether you’re managing a single data center or a global hybrid infrastructure, AppResponse ensures:
- Packet fidelity without compromise
- Real-time analytics across distributed environments
- Deployment flexibility—from hardware to cloud
If your organization is looking to modernize operations and scale with confidence, AppResponse 11.21 is ready to lead the way.
Want to see AppResponse in action? Contact your Riverbed representative or visit our website to schedule a demo today.