Riverbed vs Packeteer - Who is the best?

Most IT professionals are rushing to figure out which WAN acceleration vendors have what it takes to get the job done.

As some organizations use Packeteer for their QoS and application monitoring they are also considering Packeteer for WAN optimization and application acceleration. We believe at this stage, Riverbed is the best of breed solution for WAN acceleration.

Below you will find information from research groups and actual customers who have tested and reviewed both solutions. Please fill out the form below if you would like more detailed competitive information about the Riverbed and Packeteer comparison.

Disclaimer: We encourage all organizations to test each WAN acceleration vendor in their own production environment to make the right choice for their particular network and goals.

In December 2004, Packeteer acquired Mentat Inc. and their SkyX product line to expand on their WAN optimization solution. The challenge for Packeteer is that SkyX TCP acceleration is built on Linux and it is not compatible with their embedded OS. So its still sold separately because of this challenge.

In May 2006, Packeteer acquired Tacit, a small vendor of file caching appliances,in a bid to enter the rapidly growing WAN acceleration market. Tacit's product, called iShared, stores a local copy of files in remote sites so that access to those files appears to be fast.

It's no secret that Packetshaper QoS is built on an embedded operating system, SkyX TCP acceleration is built on Linux, and Tacit's piece of the puzzle is built on Microsoft Windows. Each by itself is a decent product, but Packeteer is still trying to figure out how to put the pieces together into one platform.

The iShaper product is marketed as a unified appliance that will combine application-level monitoring, QoS, and acceleration. However a closer look reveals that it is "unified" only in appearance, since it consists of two separate appliances that happen to reside inside a single physical box: a PacketShaper system (running a real-time OS) and an iShared system (running Windows).

The iShaper is also presented as a solution for branch office server consolidation that can run basic Microsoft services such as a print server or Active Directory. For organizations that are interested in server consolidation to reduce Windows costs at branches, a Windows-based solution starts off on the wrong foot, because by definition it involves deploying a Windows server at the remote site in order to host Packeteer's software.

The Packeteer iShaper situation gets worse - all software patches and updates for Packeteer's Windows-based products must be obtained through Packeteer, not Microsoft. Operating system updates and security patches will not be available until Packeteer has integrated, tested, and certified the new Microsoft update with its own software.

Forrester Q3 2007 - View Full Report

Riverbed - Riverbed and its Steelhead appliance is the clear Leader of the WAN optimization market. It has a top-notch product, and it will continue to expand on its strategy as the best standalone optimization vendor.

Packeteer - It has since acquired Tacit Networks, which provides the iShared platform for caching and protocol optimization. During the evaluation, it was still a two-box solution and, as a result, scored poorly on current offering. Our evaluation focused on iShared, which specifically lacked scalability, an integrated central management console, and a full set of optimization techniques. However, since the evaluation, Packeteer has launched iShaper, which combines both solutions in a unified WAN optimization appliance based on Microsoft Server technology.

Citigroup - Riverbed Analysis April 2007

As such, we view Packeteer's historical leadership as both mis-leading and tenuous. Likely in recognition of this, the company purchased Tacit and the iShaper product, which is a TCP accleration, caching and protocol acceleration (HTTP, CIFS, MAPI) appliance. However, iShaper is Windows-based, and our general view is that network administrators are wary of deploying Windows-based solutions in mission-critical environments. Further, our channel checks have criticized the solution as not being very expandable, and feature/functionality light. Some glaring omissions from its feature set include Static Web, Dynamic Web, Database and SSL.

Dave Edgecomb, Timex's Manager of Global Technical Operations, cancelled Packeteer's demonstration since they also utilized an offline approach. The easiest system to set up was Riverbed's Steelhead appliance. Source: Plixer

It's apparently worth it. Says Yankee's Keravalla: "Any company I've ever talked to that's done a technical bake-off says Riverbed performs best. - David Kirkpatrick Source: CNN

Want more competitive information?

• Riverbed Steelhead vs Packeteer iShared and iShaper
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• Riverbed Steelhead vs Juniper WX and WXC
• Riverbed Steelhead vs Blue Coat SG Mach5
• Riverbed Steelhead vs Citrix WANScaler and NetScaler
• Riverbed Steelhead vs Citrix Presentation Server
• Riverbed Steelhead vs Silver Peak NX
• Riverbed Steelhead vs F5 WANJet 200 and WANJet 400
• Riverbed Steelhead vs Expand Networks
• Riverbed Steelhead vs Ipanema

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