Riverbed, Juniper Partner on Application Delivery

Riverbed Technology (RVBD) and Juniper Networks (JNPR) announced a technology partnership in wide area network (WAN) optimization, application delivery and mobility to deliver better performance of applications across devices, networks and clouds.

Technology Collaboration

The agreement calls for Juniper to license Riverbed's application delivery controller (ADC) technology for approximately $75 million, and both companies will begin a joint effort to integrate Riverbed's Steelhead Mobile technology into the Juniper Junos Pulse client to provide a mobile acceleration solution for mobile phones and tablets. The partnership will enable both companies to strengthen their respective application acceleration solution sets and provide customers with unmatched performance and flexibility, while reducing overall total cost of ownership.

“This multi-faceted partnership will allow us to expand our addressable markets by providing customers with integrated solutions that increase the efficiency of their IT infrastructure," said Eric Wolford, executive vice president and general manager, Products Group at Riverbed. "We’ll work closely with Juniper to bring solutions to market that impact the performance of the entire enterprise and close the gap between data and the geographically dispersed people accessing that data from all around the world on various platforms.”

RiOS WAN Optimization Enhancement

Riverbed also announced a new inbound quality of service (QoS) feature in its Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS), the software that powers the company's Steelhead appliances.  Inbound QoS ensures the performance of business applications across these networks by shock absorbing the impact of applications such as video and voice, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and unified communication and collaboration (UCC), while at the same time giving latency sensitive applications the prioritization and bandwidth they need.

"Ensuring fair access for mission-critical applications during periods of congestion is a critical component of WAN optimization," said Joe Skorupa, VP Distinguished Analyst at Gartner. "As enterprises adopt an increasing number of dynamic browser-based applications and UCC applications and delivery mechanisms, they require bidirectional multi-point QoS to deliver application-specific assurances and greater performance across their entire infrastructure."