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Did Riverbed just put a big move on Cisco with release of 6.0?

Riverbed is the first do MAC

By Larry Chaffin on Mon, 10/19/09 - 10:54am.

Today Riverbed tried to take a huge leap over Cisco, Blue Coat and Juniper by releasing RIOS 6.0. This biggest part of this announcement is the optimization for Mac clients. This will provide a new market for the company of which they have not had for the last six years. Later this week we are doing a question and answer session with Bob Gilbert of Riverbed on this new release and what it really means to the company and the competition. This will be published in a new blog by Friday. (Disclosure notice: Larry Chaffin is a Riverbed reseller.)

Here is a portion of the press release issued by Riverbed today.

Enabling Citrix success without having to upgrade the WAN

Many organizations using Citrix XenApp have struggled with the performance and feasibility of delivering desktop virtualization across the WAN, impacting employee productivity and usability as a result. To expand its current acceleration for Citrix XenApp applications, Riverbed has simplified configuration and enhanced QoS capabilities for Citrix, with RiOS 6.0 delivering up to 83% bandwidth reduction and up to 50% better response times in real world environments. This reduction in bandwidth will allow organizations to deploy more than twice the number of XenApp clients without having to increase bandwidth at remote sites, while improving performance at the same time. ...

Macs up to 60 times faster

Consumer-side momentum with Apple products has been slowly making inroads in the enterprise, with more employees pushing IT departments to support Macs. As end users expand their options for accessing information, they expect the same performance no matter their location, platform or client. In RiOS 6.0, Riverbed introduces the ability to accelerate Mac clients with CIFS application-specific optimization.

According to Thai Tran, the infrastructure administrator at ESA, a Riverbed customer, "Our Apple Mac users working across the WAN were experiencing delays browsing and accessing files. After we applied the new Mac CIFS optimization feature, the delay was dramatically reduced. For example, prior to RiOS 6.0 an ESA employee downloading a 6.37 MB PDF located in the San Francisco office would wait more than three minutes to open it from a remote location. Once the Mac CIFS optimization was implemented, the same file took on average only three seconds to open. By accessing information 60 times faster, we're able to increase employee productivity and create a better end user experience."

What do you think? Will Mac support be a boon for Riverbed?

About Putting Realism Into Your Network

Larry Chaffin Ph.D is the Chief Executive Officer/Chairman and founder of Pluto Networks, a Consulting and VAR partner specializing in WAN acceleration, VoIP, WLAN, telepresence and security.

Pluto Networks is a Riverbed reseller. Pluto was previously a Cisco reseller but in June, 2010, ended its reseller relationship with the company and is no longer a Cisco channel partner.

Pluto Networks specializes in the needs of small, large and enterprise companies by always giving them a great ROI on the products they sell. Pluto Networks has a presence in 23 countries around the world enabling all of its consultants to be virtual. Larry was a Judge at Interop for the Best of Interop Awards for 2009.

Larry has also co-authored all of the books listed below:

Managing Cisco Secure NetworksSkype MePractical VOIP SecurityConfiguring Check Point NGX VPN-1/Firewall-1,Configuring Juniper Networks NetScreen & SSG Firewalls,Essential Computer Security: Everyone's Guide to Email, Internet, and Wireless SecurityHow to Cheat at Microsoft Vista AdministrationMicrosoft Vista for IT Security ProfessionalsAsterisk Hacking2008 VoIP and Video ConferencingInfosecurity 2008 Threat Analysis and author of Building a VOIP Network with Nortel's MS5100, along with co-authoring/ghost writing eleven other technology books for VIOP, WLAN, security and optical technologies. Larry is currently working on a follow up to Building a VoIP network with Nortel's MCS 5100 Book as well as new books on Cisco Telepresence Networks, Practical VoIP case studies and WAN Acceleration with Riverbed.

Larry also has more than 29 vendor certifications and has been working on many others. Larry has been a principal architect around the world in 22 countries for many Fortune 100 companies designing VoIP, security, wireless and optical networks. He has expanded over time also to include application acceleration. Larry is working with worldwide company now out of Asia as a Special Assistant to the CEO and CIO as they go through organizational and network changes, helping them with strategic advice from his years of experience.

Pluto Networks is a channel partner of, LifeSize, Riverbed, Call Copy, Fastsoft and Symantec.

 

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