Riverbed WAN Optimzation - Silicon Image shares their experience

Grab your FREE copy of the WAN Optimization 2.0 White Paper

Man: My level of involvement with the Riverbed WAN optimization is Kenny and I looked at
it, we decided we liked it. We did not like the present solutions which
were either Silver Peak or Blue Coat. So, we went, we got the
evaluations, we tested it between the Hanover site and Sunnyvale, and
then we purchased them.

So, one of the things we really needed to get was that the engineers
would have a good work experience across the LAN. That is why we
started looking at the Riverbed Steelhead appliances.

We had Blue Coat in house for something else, but the configuration of
that is very complex. So, we actually got so far as we shipped another
Blue Coat box out to Hanover and we are getting ready to implement that
when we came across the Riverbed WAN acceleration solution. We came across that online
and literally it was that very problem we were having Riverbed were
addressing.

The one thing that really held us back on the Blue Coat is that it is
just a huge pain to configure. And with the Riverbed, you put it in
line, it locates the other appliance, the devices begin to talk, and you
see an improvement right away. So, it was really night and day when we
switched to the Riverbed box as ease of set up and then also what we
were seeing in performance.

With the Riverbed we loosely configure it, give it an IP addresses,
give it an admin password, send it out there, and the devices locate
themselves. With the Silver Peak, you actually have to go in, tell it
about the other device, then adjust the WAN bandwidth as well. So, it is a
little more work on the Silver Peak and with the Blue Coat it is a lot
more work. It is a monster to configure. So, ease of use is one of the
primary things we look for when going for any kind of deployment.