Riverbed ups networking in India with new SD-WAN solution launch

BENGALURU: In a major move to revolutionize networking in India, Riverbed Technology, the application performance company, has launched Riverbed SteelConnect, an SD-WAN (software-defined wide area network) solution that can offer a new approach to networking for the cloud-era and simplifies the design, deployment and management of enterprise networks.

Riverbed says that its SteelConnect disrupts legacy hardware-based approaches to networking – which haven’t changed much since the 1990’s - with a software-defined, cloud-managed and application-centric solution that delivers the agility, visibility, and performance that businesses need to succeed in the digital age. Riverbed also announced the availability of a new line of SteelHead SD models, which combine SteelConnect and its industry-leading SteelHead WAN optimisation into a streamlined, single-device solution.

The cloud market in India continues to grow at a rapid pace, with spending on public cloud services expected to reach $1.81 Billion in 2017 (up 38 percent from 2016). The continued push for digitalisation by the Government of India through initiatives like Digital India and Smart City - as well as moves towards a ‘less cash’ society – is directly and indirectly fuelling this growth. While there have been major advancements in cloud computing, cloud storage and cloud apps, traditional networking has been left behind. In fact, Gartner says 50% of cloud deployments will suffer from business-impacting performance issues, requiring extensive network redesign.

“Organisations in India are under tremendous pressure to transform digitally and to deliver more agile, simple, scalable and cost-efficient services to their customers,” said Nagendra Venkaswamy, Vice President, India and South Asia for Riverbed. “Legacy approaches to networking - built long before the cloud formed - are hardware-centric, rigid, and error-prone; preventing businesses from moving forward and threatening investments in digital transformation and the cloud. SteelConnect represents a complete rethink of networking in the cloud era. It’s an application-defined networking solution that leverages Riverbed’s application DNA and integrates industry-leading visibility, to provide the agility, simplicity and speed enterprises need to manage today’s complex cloud and hybrid architectures.”

Industry analyst projections indicate an enormous pent-up demand for newer and better approaches to networking. Gartner expects SD-WAN uptake to grow from less than 1% of enterprises today to 30% of enterprises by the end of 2019, and IDC expects the worldwide SD-WAN market to grow from less than $225 million in 2015 to more than $6 billion in 2020.

“Think of SD-WAN like re-architecting a house, but with the plumbing, painting, electricity and gas all supplied with the click of a mouse,” said Venkaswamy. “SteelConnect provides a new experience of networking for both IT and business, where deploying and managing network services is as intuitive as downloading apps onto your smart phone and as instant as spinning up compute and storage resources in the cloud. We believe it has the potential to disrupt the multi-billion-dollar branch office router market and re-define networking in India as we know it today.”