Another Big Step Towards Bringing Networking Into the Cloud Era

From the very outset when we defined our vision and strategy to bring networking into the cloud era, we knew that the cloud itself would play a primary role. The bold yet simple goal was to streamline and unify network management across both on-premises and cloud-based environments.

As an update, I wanted to share with you some exciting steps Riverbed and Microsoft are taking together to make our joint cloud strategy a reality. Our engineering teams have been working together to bring you seamless and intuitive integration between the Azure Virtual WAN and Riverbed SteelConnect SD-WAN.

The Azure Virtual WAN is a global network backbone which Microsoft will launch later this year to provide managed site-to-site and site-to-VNet connectivity. With Riverbed SteelConnect you’re able to automate secure connectivity into the Azure Virtual WAN, integrating it into the rest of your enterprise network. Using the SteelConnect Manager policy engine and intuitive graphical interface, you are a few clicks away from steering traffic for selected applications, users or entire locations into the Azure Virtual WAN, just as you would for any other MPLS or Internet broadband circuits in your hybrid WAN.

Riverbed simplifies cloud networking. For instance, securely connecting new sites through Azure Virtual WAN involves little more than a few drop down menus.

This is already having an impact with early adopter customers and partners. Sword Group, an international consulting, services and software enterprise is one such company that is using the integration between Riverbed SteelConnect and Azure Virtual WAN:

“As a multi-national company, Sword needs to connect all around the world and provide interconnectivity. With Riverbed’s SteelConnect and Microsoft’s Azure Virtual WAN, we are able to deploy locations in minutes easily in a few steps, control the access, and remove complex and expensive scenarios—all while providing cloud workloads close to the users. This capability will allow Sword to engage in new markets with great speed and agility.”

 –Guillaume Mottard, Sword Group COO

By offering this integration with Azure Virtual WAN, Riverbed is maintaining its position as a highly differentiated and comprehensive networking solution for enterprises adopting Microsoft cloud technologies.

This is an important part of our broader vision to unify connectivity and orchestration across the entire distributed network spanning WAN, Wireless & Wired LAN, Data Center & Cloud, with seamless integration of industry-leading visibility, optimization and security functions. Through the same console that is used to connect to Azure Virtual WAN, you’re able to define policies to steer specific applications to and from your data centers, choose which traffic should be chained in with local or cloud-based security services at the branch, even zero-touch deploy wireless access points and switches at the edge of your remote networks.

It’s through a rich set of integrated capabilities that our customers are able to provide the agility and velocity their businesses require while reducing costs at the same time. Global Engineering and Services company, GHD, has been able to radically transform their approach to connecting new sites resulting from M&A activity into their global network fabric.

“GHD deployed Riverbed’s SD-WAN solution SteelConnect across 50 new offices in just four weeks, and we anticipate saving $1 million annually.”

-Elizabeth Harper, CIO, GHD

It’s exciting to see results like these that simply aren’t possible with outdated decades-old approaches to networking.

With partners like Microsoft, we’ll continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible, challenge the status quo and aggressively bring IT and businesses into the cloud era.

We hope you’ll benefit from these new integrations and we invite you to take a test drive of Riverbed Cloud Networking to experience the future of networking first hand.