Riverbed pumps up SaaS applications with new Accelerator

Riverbed announced a range of updates to its Digital Experience Management platform and software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) offerings, but the headliner is an "accelerator" for software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications.

Riverbed's SaaS Accelerator is a cloud-based solution that Riverbed said can increase SaaS application performance by up to 10 times for all users. Working in tandem with Riverbed's End User Experience Monitoring, the accelerator allows organizations to measure, monitor and accelerate SaaS-based enterprise apps such as Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce, ServiceNow and Box, among others.

Enterprises are in the process of moving from hardware-based applications and services to software-as-a-service applications that are enabled in the cloud. SaaS applications can be accessed from virtually anywhere by enterprise employees. SaaS also provides service flexibility, improved application performance and a better user experience.

By 2020, companies will move as much as 80% of their applications into SaaS environments, according to SaaS management platform provider Blissfully. On the flip side companies are falling short of delivering on the promise of SaaS with 73% reporting that they are experiencing poor SaaS performance on a monthly basis and 90% performance degradation impacts their businesses.

According to Gartner, SaaS revenue is projected to reach $113 billion by 2021, up from $85 billion this year. Overall, SaaS represents the largest segment of the cloud market, with a projected growth of close 18% this year.

As a cloud-based solution, SaaS Accelerator gives organizations the ability to turn up services within minutes. Riverbed said its SaaS Accelerator solution can dramatically improve user experience and business outcomes by eliminating performance gaps and disruptions that interfere with an employee’s ability to stay connected, satisfied and productive.

SD-WAN updates

Riverbed also announced on Wednesday that it has updated its SteelConnect and StealHead SD-WAN solutions. Riverbed said the SD-WAN updates improve agility, security and operational efficiency across multi-cloud network automation. Other improvements include enhanced service-chaining for on-premises and cloud-based security services, and increased flexibility for deploying and managing SD-WAN across global environments. The SD-WAN release also includes one-click integration to Zscaler’s security platform.

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Riverbed also announced advancements to its Digital Experience Management (DEM) platform, which measures and manages the digital experience of end users. The DEM updates include an automated remediation feature that proactively addresses and resolves common user device issues before they impact user experience or are escalated to a support team.