Riverbed rolls out Granite line, overhauls Steelhead appliances

Riverbed introduced its Granite line of products that is designed to consolidate edge servers in a company’s infrastructure.

In a nutshell, Riverbed's Granite is looking to consolidate edge applications, servers and storage into the data center, according to the company.

For Riverbed, the Granite line is viewed as an extension of its wide area networking optimization expertise. However, this new architecture comes at a cost for Riverbed. The company recently cut its financial outlook largely based on the launch of its new products.

Riverbed is pitching Granite as a way to put offices around the world on a consolidated infrastructure. How? By decoupling storage from servers thousands of miles away as if they were local. With this appliance approach, IT execs can manage infrastructure from around the world. Riverbed is touting 50 percent savings over typical approaches.

Among the key points:

• Granite needs Granite Core, an appliance designed for the data center.
• Granite Edge is a service running on Riverbed's Steelhead EX in a branch office.
• Granite Edge can also be a standalone appliance.
• The new products are generally available now.

In addition, Riverbed revamped its Steelhead line of WAN optimization appliances. The company launched the Steelhead CX and Steelhead EX. The CS is a WAN optimization appliance. The EX is designed for enterprise branch offices. Both are available this quarter.