McAfee and Riverbed Technology have entered into a partnership that delivers a best-of-breed and comprehensive security and wide area network (WAN) optimization solution for organizations with remote offices.  The one-box solution, which will include a virtual instance of McAfee Firewall Enterprise software running on the award-winning Riverbed Steelhead appliance, enables enterprises to deliver accelerated data and application access to users while protecting critical information and infrastructure from security threats.  The joining of forces between the leading WAN optimization provider and the world’s largest dedicated security company will help customers cost-effectively address the distributed computing challenges associated with key IT initiatives such as server centralization, data center consolidation and a highly mobile workforce. Â
Riverbed WAN optimization solutions enable organizations of all sizes to overcome a wide range of IT and private cloud infrastructure performance bottlenecks, including poor application performance, slow database backups and insufficient bandwidth at remote sites. By speeding the performance of applications between data centers, remote offices and mobile workers, in some cases by up to 100 times, the award-winning Riverbed Steelhead products enable companies to consolidate IT while improving staff productivity and collaboration.Â
“Customers are demanding simplified management and security that is integrated into critical network infrastructure platforms, such as the Riverbed Steelhead appliance,” said Dan Ryan, Executive Vice- President & General Manager of the Network Security business unit at McAfee. “By recognizing the eventual integration and overlap of security within the network environment, we are taking a proactive approach to offering customers a set of proven solutions that provide choice and flexibility in the marketplace.  The coupling of the strengths of both companies is expected to deliver a set of solutions that customers can depend on to protect their most valuable data assets.” Â
The Riverbed Services Platform (RSP) is a virtualized, extensible data services platform integrated with the Steelhead appliance hardware that allows customers to deploy multiple best-of-breed edge services that formerly required dedicated servers. Â Customers can deploy virtualized applications, such as McAfee Firewall Enterprise software, directly on the RSP to further minimize the hardware infrastructure footprint at the branch office, thereby reducing operational overhead.Â
