My advice to new users considering Steelhead is to focus on its strengths, particularly in WAN optimization. If the primary requirement is monitoring tools like NTA, then SolarWinds might be a more suitable recommendation. It is about aligning the solution with the specific needs of the user, and in the context of WAN optimization, Steelhead is a strong choice. Overall, I would rate Steelhead as a six out of ten, mainly because it is on the expensive side.
The solution is a non-premise one like the router. For the most part of the protocol, the solution is kept on-site. You need to have time to accelerate cloud-based applications like Office 356. We require a license from the Russian authorities. The solution works for a remote user as well. We have customers with a mixed setup where they are not the only end users. They are major businesses with more than 100 branches. The application’s sizing needs to be done well. They should have complete access to the applications that come under the particular bandwidth loss. They will also require a certificate of application.
IT Network Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
2021-11-07T09:37:00Z
Nov 7, 2021
I would rate Steelhead a nine out of ten because the product is very stable; it never fails. It does compression and application optimization very well. Riverbed can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud as well. We can deploy it in Amazon, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. The solution is in the marketplace of every car provider and it also optimizes Office 365 traffic, since there's a partnership with Riverbed and Microsoft. We can deploy on-premise, we can deploy on IaaS or we can deploy on PaaS. In the past, the internet links of the MPLS link were full capacity (one or two Mbps) and it was very expensive. Nowadays, the prices of the MPLS links are cheaper and the capacity is increased.
Network Support Engineer at a government with 201-500 employees
Real User
2021-08-18T17:47:13Z
Aug 18, 2021
We are a customer and an end-user. We don't have a business relationship with the company itself. We are still using the CX 5070 across our sites. We have one in the system. I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We've been very pleased with the solution and its capabilities over the years. I would recommend the product to others.
I would advise others to do tests and make sure they really need the product before purchasing it because it is expensive. I rateRiverbed Steelhead a seven out of ten.
Senior Technical Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
2020-04-13T06:27:00Z
Apr 13, 2020
I would 100 percent advise others to implement this product. When potential customers ask us why they should buy SteelHead instead of just increasing their bandwidth from 10 Mbps to 20 Mbps, we tell them that doing so does not eliminate protocol chattiness. The reason behind this is that the TCP three-way handshake will happen at 10 Mbps and at 20 Mbps as well. If you have 20 applications in your environment and your users are accessing those applications, there is a lot of protocol chattiness going on. Upgrading bandwidth will not eliminate it. If you buy SteelHead, you can eliminate the protocol chattiness, and all the different kinds of handshaking. Every protocol is very chatty. CIFS, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, applications that are running on port 445, use a protocol that is very chatty as well. Also, Riverbed recently started offering SD-WAN. The SteelConnect appliance delivers SD-WAN service and can easily provide routing, application visibility, security services, and WAN optimization. Riverbed has also started delivering a next-generation firewall which is completely an application firewall.
Steelhead is the leading network optimization and application performance solution chosen by over 30,000 organizations worldwide. The performance of networks and applications directly impacts business productivity. Riverbed draws from nearly two decades of experience in driving network and application performance over Wide Area Networks with its flagship offering, SteelHead. SteelHead delivers the underlying technology that helps enterprises of all sizes maximize the efficiency and...
Overall, I would rate Steelhead a nine out of ten.
My advice to new users considering Steelhead is to focus on its strengths, particularly in WAN optimization. If the primary requirement is monitoring tools like NTA, then SolarWinds might be a more suitable recommendation. It is about aligning the solution with the specific needs of the user, and in the context of WAN optimization, Steelhead is a strong choice. Overall, I would rate Steelhead as a six out of ten, mainly because it is on the expensive side.
The solution is a non-premise one like the router. For the most part of the protocol, the solution is kept on-site. You need to have time to accelerate cloud-based applications like Office 356. We require a license from the Russian authorities. The solution works for a remote user as well. We have customers with a mixed setup where they are not the only end users. They are major businesses with more than 100 branches. The application’s sizing needs to be done well. They should have complete access to the applications that come under the particular bandwidth loss. They will also require a certificate of application.
I rate the solution nine out of 10.
I would rate Steelhead a nine out of ten because the product is very stable; it never fails. It does compression and application optimization very well. Riverbed can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud as well. We can deploy it in Amazon, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. The solution is in the marketplace of every car provider and it also optimizes Office 365 traffic, since there's a partnership with Riverbed and Microsoft. We can deploy on-premise, we can deploy on IaaS or we can deploy on PaaS. In the past, the internet links of the MPLS link were full capacity (one or two Mbps) and it was very expensive. Nowadays, the prices of the MPLS links are cheaper and the capacity is increased.
We are a customer and an end-user. We don't have a business relationship with the company itself. We are still using the CX 5070 across our sites. We have one in the system. I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We've been very pleased with the solution and its capabilities over the years. I would recommend the product to others.
I would advise others to do tests and make sure they really need the product before purchasing it because it is expensive. I rateRiverbed Steelhead a seven out of ten.
I would 100 percent advise others to implement this product. When potential customers ask us why they should buy SteelHead instead of just increasing their bandwidth from 10 Mbps to 20 Mbps, we tell them that doing so does not eliminate protocol chattiness. The reason behind this is that the TCP three-way handshake will happen at 10 Mbps and at 20 Mbps as well. If you have 20 applications in your environment and your users are accessing those applications, there is a lot of protocol chattiness going on. Upgrading bandwidth will not eliminate it. If you buy SteelHead, you can eliminate the protocol chattiness, and all the different kinds of handshaking. Every protocol is very chatty. CIFS, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, applications that are running on port 445, use a protocol that is very chatty as well. Also, Riverbed recently started offering SD-WAN. The SteelConnect appliance delivers SD-WAN service and can easily provide routing, application visibility, security services, and WAN optimization. Riverbed has also started delivering a next-generation firewall which is completely an application firewall.