Akamai and Riverbed Collaborate to Launch SaaS Acceleration Solution

Akamai Technologies Inc and Riverbed (News - Alert) Technology recently announced that they had joined forces to launch the Steelhead Cloud Accelerator, an innovative solution that leverages Akamai's innovative Internet optimization technology along with Riverbed wide area network (WAN) optimization technology to provide end-to-end optimization for software-as-a-service(SaaS) applications.

In a release, Willie M. Tejada, Senior Vice President & General Manager of the Enterprise Cloud Division at Akamai (News - Alert), said, "Leveraging existing Riverbed WAN optimization deployments in corporate networks and the globally distributed Akamai Intelligent Platform for Internet optimization, organizations can realize immediate value without having to deploy any new hardware. With our joint solution, Riverbed and Akamai are ensuring the best user experience for any application, any user, located anywhere, essentially bringing the cloud closer to the end user."

By merging the flagship Riverbed WAN optimization technology along with the capabilities of the Akamai Intelligent Platform, both companies are now in a position to offer a unique solution that has been specifically designed to address performance issues that are posed by hybrid cloud networks. Businesses that are looking for ways to reduce traffic on backhaul links and remove the need for bandwidth upgrades can use this solution to their advantage.

Pal Goran Johansen, Network Engineer, Harris Caprock Communication, a global provider of fully managed communications for remote and harsh environments, said, "Seadrill, a leading offshore deep water drilling company, wanted to take advantage of the economics, ease of management, accessibility and storing space offered by cloud technology and decided to centralize their enterprise applications using cloud computing. However, when employees logged into Office 365 in the morning, it could take as long as two hours before their mailboxes were fully synchronized and led to bandwidth constraints for other types of traffic due to saturated satellite links, often leaving users frustrated. Having reliable and consistent access to Office 365 was mission critical for communication and collaboration between its oil rigs, offices and headquarters.”

Johansen continued, “After testing the Steelhead Cloud Accelerator, response times with Office 365 dramatically improved and freed bandwidth for other traffic. The results showed that Seadrill employees would see significant benefit, as employees would be more productive and collaborative across its 45 oil rigs in EMEA, South America and North America, as well as its offices across the world."

A subscription-based add-on to existing Steelhead appliance deployments, the Steelhead Cloud Accelerator will provide optimizations for SaaS applications Google Apps, Salesforce.com and Microsoft (News - Alert) Office 365. The Steelhead Cloud Accelerator solution is expected to be made available during the month of March 2012.