Catching up with Riverbed Technology

Network Optimization This newsletter is sponsored by Secure Computing Webinar: Securing up network access Learn how token-based, one-time password authentication systems can help enterprises reduce business risk, better comply with regulations, are easy to manage and most importantly keep networks secure. Tune in to this webinar. Network World's Network Optimization Newsletter, 09/13/07 Catching up with Riverbed Technology By Ann Bednarz The WAN optimization market is enjoying some good times. Vendors continue to pepper the market with new products, and enterprises continue to buy. Infonetics Research predicts strong double-digit annual growth in the worldwide WAN optimization market through 2010, when sales will reach $652 million. One company riding the wave is Riverbed Technology (which this summer came out on top in Network World’s test of WAN acceleration gear). Network World Buyer's Guides Find the right products for your enterprise - fast. With seven categories - security, storage, convergence and VoIP, network infrastructure, network applications, wireless and LAN/WAN management - you can quickly pinpoint the hardware or software you need. With the side-by-side comparison tool you can evaluate product features and make the best purchase decisions for your enterprise. Click here to go to the Buyer's Guides now. Riverbed made its debut as a public company nearly one year ago, with an offering price of $9.75 per share. Last week, the San Francisco company’s stock closed just above $40. In its most recent quarterly statement, Riverbed posted 200% growth in revenue compared to the year-earlier quarter. Looking ahead, Riverbed will have a new revenue stream to pursue with its mobile client, which it began shipping just a few weeks ago. The Steelhead Mobile software performs data de-duplication, transport protocol optimization and other acceleration functions to speed up WAN traffic between data centers and individual notebooks and desktops. Last week I caught up with Eric Wolford, senior vice president of marketing and business development at Riverbed. Here’s what he had to say on a number of corporate and technical issues. * Purchase priorities: Wolford cites four primary reasons IT buyers shop for WAN optimization gear: to speed up applications over the WAN so employees can be more productive; as part of an initiative to remove servers and storage devices from remote locations and consolidate them in a data center; to speed data back-up and replication applications; and to make better use of bandwidth and avoid upgrades. “People tend to start slowly and then build in their momentum,” he says. “They’ll start with two to 10 boxes, and then do bigger orders in the second and third phase.” * Repeat buyers: “The thing that gives energy to any company is the traction you get with buyers and customers, and how many customers are buying more,” Wolford says. Between 45% and 60% of Riverbed’s quarterly revenue is from repeat customers, he says. * The challenge of building a mobile client: Morphing Riverbed’s existing technology into a smaller footprint, appropriate for a personal computer, was challenging, Wolford says. “On a laptop, you don’t control all the resources. So behaving as a good citizen, and not causing collateral damage, was something that required a fair amount of work and energy.” Testing to make sure the Steelhead Mobile software could interoperate with the other software that commonly sits on laptops -- including different operating systems, wireless technologies and VPNs -- was a big part of the engineering effort. “All of those variants meant there had to be a lot invested in testing combinations, permutations. There’s a lot of complexity that had to be worked through,” Wolford says. * Mobile demand: Early indicators suggest customers are interested in Riverbed’s acceleration technology for desktops and laptops. “Our beta program was 3x oversubscribed,” Wolford says of the Steelhead Mobile launch.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Ann Bednarz is an associate news editor at Network World responsible for editing daily news content. She previously covered enterprise applications, e-commerce and telework trends for Network World. E-mail Ann. This newsletter is sponsored by Secure Computing Webinar: Securing up network access Learn how token-based, one-time password authentication systems can help enterprises reduce business risk, better comply with regulations, are easy to manage and most importantly keep networks secure. Tune in to this webinar. ARCHIVE Archive of the Network Optimization Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007