Akamai, Riverbed To Accelerate Applications Over Hybrid Cloud Networks

Akamai Technologies, the provider of cloud optimisation services, and Riverbed Technology, the IT performance company, has announced their work on a joint offering designed to overcome the application performance bottlenecks facing enterprises that leverage public cloud services.

Akamai and Riverbed are announcing their intention to develop a joint application acceleration solution for hybrid cloud networks that leverages a combination of Internet optimisation and wide area network (WAN) optimisation. The planned solution would be designed to accelerate cloud-based applications.

In creating a joint offering, Akamai and Riverbed intend to focus on technology integration designed to solve the new application performance challenges introduced by hybrid cloud networks. Akamai Internet optimisation software would be integrated within Riverbed Steelhead appliances with the goal of extending Internet optimisations into enterprise networks, thereby extending Akamai’s edge from close proximity to the datacentre to directly within the enterprise.

In addition, Riverbed WAN optimisation software would be integrated within Akamai edge servers with the goal of extending WAN optimisation into the public cloud, thereby extending Riverbed’s edge from the datacentre to close proximity to cloud datacentres.

“The rapid move to the cloud presents new opportunities for two industry leaders, Riverbed and Akamai, to create solutions for enterprises to simplify their extension to the cloud while leveraging the infrastructure they already have in place,” said Anil Batra, Managing Director, Riverbed India. “Accelerating software as a service, for example, across a hybrid cloud environment helps businesses increase application adoption. We believe that greater adoption means improved business results, operating and infrastructure savings, and user productivity.”

“Akamai’s highly-distributed architecture is close to any public cloud infrastructure and Riverbed Steelhead appliances stretch across thousands of enterprise IT networks from the datacentre to the branch office and mobile worker,” said Willie Tejada, vice president, Application and Site Acceleration, Akamai. “The alliance is focused on marrying best-in-class protocol optimisations for maximum acceleration and infrastructure offload. Together, both companies expect to provide a seamless solution with quick time-to-value while leveraging each other’s existing footprints.”