Riverbed Launches Steelhead Appliance for the Data Center

Riverbed launches a new Steelhead DX Edition 8000 appliance for wide area network acceleration, Citrix introduces CloudBridge CSX Solution to consolidate servers at branch locations, and Dell introduces thin client infrastructure support for Windows Server 2012 R2 and vWorkspace.

Riverbed introduces Steelhead DX 8000 appliance. Riverbed (RVBD) announced that it has expanded its Steelhead wide area network (WAN) optimization product family, with a new DX Edition 8000 Series - to address the unique needs of datacenter-to-datacenter data replication workloads. The appliance delivers 60 times the WAN performance acceleration and up to 99 percent bandwidth reduction. It supports up to 2 Gbps of optimized WAN capacity and up to 10 Gbps of optimized LAN capacity while optimizing up to 10,000 TCP and UDP application flows. In addition, the solution provides unique optimizations for data replication applications such as NetApp SnapMirror and EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF), providing advanced performance, enhanced visibility and fine-grain control of data replication processes end-to-end across the WAN. “The Steelhead product family is already the most complete WAN optimization solution in the market, and with this announcement we added another important and business-critical use case,” said Paul O’Farrell, senior vice president and general manager, Steelhead Products Group, Riverbed. “The new Steelhead DX Edition eliminates distance between datacenters as a barrier to achieving true location-independent computing, which in this case means that data can be moved, stored and backed-up regardless of where facilities are located, but with performance similar to a local area network. Only Riverbed offers a complete solution for both large-scale branch-to-datacenter and datacenter-to-datacenter environments.”

Citrix launches CloudBridge CSX Solution. Citrix (CTXS)  announced the CloudBridge CSX solution, powered by the new CloudBridge 2000WS appliance.  The new CloudBridge appliance helps consolidate the number of physical servers needed at the branch location by uniting full wide area network (WAN) Optimization capabilities with a new, pre-configured Windows Server.  The CSX solution combines the new CloudBridge appliance with applications provided by partners Qumu, Talon and Cortado to offer the most critical services needed at the branch  – video distribution and streaming, multi-site file collaboration, and localized print services.  "CIOs today are thinking about how to address the transition to the cloud, particularly at branch locations," said Chalan Aras, Vice President and General Manager, CloudBridge Product Group at Citrix. "As enterprise IT tries to become more efficient by moving some non-critical apps at the branch to the cloud there’s a need to address application delivery. Traditional WAN Op as a stand-alone technology must evolve to become a holistic cloud services delivery model. Citrix is leading the path toward this new cloud services model with the capabilities included in today’s announcement of the CloudBridge CSX Solution."

Dell launches Wyse Thin CLient for Windows Server and vWorkspace.  Dell announced expansion of its Cloud Client-Computing solutions portfolio to incorporate support for Windows Server 2012 R2 and vWorkspace, combining existing infrastructure offerings for Windows Server 2012 R2 and for vWorkspace into a single, end-to-end Hyver-V based desktop virtualization solution. The solution supports Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.1 and Intel Ivy Bridge processors, and Microsoft RemoeFX(RDP), with support for a broad range of RDP 8.0 features. It also has virtualized shared graphics using AMD FirePro GPUs, and features unified communications support with the Microsoft Lync 2013 VDI plug-in for Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows 8 end points increases user productivity without affecting server user density. New VDI features include support for iOS, Mac OS and Android end points. “We are excited to work with Dell on this offering for customers with Microsoft-based IT environments,” said Klaas Langhout, principal director project management, Windows Server, Microsoft. “Dell Wyse Datacenter for Microsoft VDI and vWorkspace will allow IT to use their existing skills on Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V to reduce operating and capital expenditures with RDP deployments.”