Deeper Network Visibility With Riverbed Cascade 9.5

Riverbed (RVBD) introduced new capabilities to its Cascade application-aware network performance management (NPM) solution, which delivers visibility into virtualized data centers and those using load-balancing application delivery controllers (ADCs).

Version 9.5 of Riverbed Cascade provides deeper visibility into the data center network as a NPM solution to provide a wizard-based, streamlined configuration process for service monitoring across ADCs. It spans physical, virtual and load balanced environments to give insight into multi-tiered applications.

Riverbed says its Virtual Cascade Shark is the first product to offer continuous packet capture and performance analysis in virtual environments. To enable a transparent data center and "decomplexify" performance management the new Cascade version and virtual cascade shark deliver greater visibility and empower IT staff to simplify end to end performance monitoring.

“The irresistible tide of server virtualization has combined with increasingly strategic deployments of application and network optimization technologies to create new and troublesome visibility barriers for IT operations,” said Jim Frey, managing research director at EMA. “This requires a fundamental re-assessment of performance monitoring and management technologies due to fast emerging requirements for integrated visibility and virtualized instrumentation. The Riverbed Cascade solution is evolving in this very direction, and coupled with the balance of the Riverbed optimization portfolio, comprises a unique and compelling combination of visibility and control for the evolving, virtualized enterprise IT infrastructure.”

Integrating directly into the hypervisor, the new Virtual Cascade Shark software provides the real-time visibility needed to manage and troubleshoot application performance as it traverses the virtual switch in VMware ESX environments. Providing centralized service-level discovery and monitoring it works with the Cascade Profiler performance management dashboard, exporting application-enhanced traffic metrics.

New Features in 9.5 

With version 9.5, Cascade extends service monitoring and troubleshooting across load balanced applications and both physical and virtual environments. Multi-segment analysis with Cascade Pilot gives precision time stamping and accelerates problem identification, whether the issue is on the LAN, the WAN, or within the data center.  Cascade Shark can now adopt nanosecond time stamps from SPAN port aggregators for greater precision and accuracy. Cascade 9.5 tightens the integration between Cascade Shark and Cascade Profiler by bringing support for voice over IP protocols and quality metrics into Cascade Profiler.

“Virtualization and load balancing have fundamentally transformed the data center," said Dimitri Vlachos, senior director of marketing and product management, Cascade Business Unit at Riverbed. "While these technologies provide amazing benefits, they also create real visibility challenges. For end-to-end performance, IT operations need visibility into all application and network traffic across all IT environments – physical and virtual, from the user to the deepest depths of the data center. Cascade provides enterprise customers a unique, cost-effective, and easy-to-use solution for monitoring and troubleshooting today’s complex IT environment and the critical applications that run over it.”