2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

About RiverbedRiverbed Technology is the IT infrastructure performance company. The Riverbed family of wide area network (WAN) optimization solutions liberates businesses from common IT constraints by increasing application performance, enabling consolidation, and providing enterprise-wide network and application visibility – all while eliminating the need to increase bandwidth, storage or servers. Thousands of companies with distributed operations use Riverbed to make their IT infrastructure faster, less expensive and more responsive. Additional information about Riverbed (NASDAQ: RVBD) is available at www.riverbed.com

Riverbed Technology199 Fremont StreetSan Francisco, CA 94105Tel: +1 415 247 8800Fax: +1 415 247 8801www.riverbed.com

Riverbed Technology Pte. Ltd.391A Orchard Road #22-06/10Ngee Ann City Tower ASingapore 238873Tel: +65 6508-7400

Riverbed Technology Ltd. Farley Hall, London RoadBinfieldBracknellBerks RG42 4EUTel: +44 (0) 1344 401900

Riverbed Technology K.K.Shiba-Koen Plaza Building 9F3-6-9, Shiba, Minato-kuTokyo, Japan 105-0014Tel: +81 3 5419 1990

© 2009 Riverbed Technology. All rights reserved. Portions of Riverbed’s products are protected under Riverbed patents, as well as patents pending. Riverbed Technology, Riverbed, Steelhead, RiOS, Interceptor, Think Fast, the Riverbed logo, Mazu, Profiler, Atlas and Cascade are trademarks or registered trademarks of Riverbed Technology All other trademarks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.

PERFORMANCE BRIEF

Windows File SharingWindows File Sharing over the WANWindows file sharing uses the Common Internet File System (CIFS), a widely used file sharing and transport protocol for client/server communications for applications such as Microsoft operating systems and Windows-based networks over the WAN.

However, across the WAN, Windows file sharing performance is reduced dramatically. As enterprises continue to centralize IT resources for greater control and cost reduction, they continually struggle with performance challenges. They often unsuccessfully attempt to alleviate this problem by add-ing WAN bandwidth. However, adding more bandwidth does not directly address the problem. It is essential to both mitigate the impact of network latency and intelligently reduce the size of data transfers in order to accelerate Windows File Sharing over the WAN.

Steelhead-Enhanced Windows File Sharing

Riverbed significantly optimizes Windows file sharing to deliver LAN-like performance for remote offices by utilizing the Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS), which simultaneously addresses band-width constraints and the combined effects of latency and protocol inefficiencies. RiOS utilizes fine grain data reduction, as well as compression, to perform Data Streamlining, reducing bandwidth utilization by 60% to 95%. Transport and Application Streamlining minimize protocol chattiness, eliminating 65% to 98% of packet roundtrips across the WAN. RiOS also utilizes Transaction Predic-tion for CIFS, providing a dramatic performance improvement for Windows operations. In addition, unlike other approaches, Riverbed can accelerate functions beyond “drag-and-drop” file sharing, such as folder browsing and folder copying.

Performance Improvements

Test results show that Riverbed Steelhead appliances dramatically accelerate common Windows File Sharing operations, and significantly reduce WAN bandwidth utilization.

File copy – up to 279 times faster•

Folder copy – up to 19 times faster, up to 98% less WAN traffic•

Folder browse – up to 14 times faster•

TEST Summary

Windows file sharing is up to 279 »»times faster

Bandwidth utilization is reduced by »»up to 98%

Unlike alternative approaches that only »»optimize “drag-and-drop” file sharing, Riverbed also streamlines chattiness associated with functions like folder copying and browsing

TESTing ScEnario

These tests were performed using various file sizes, and also a 8.11MB folder containing many files. Riverbed Steelhead appliances accelerated Windows operations that included file copying, folder copying, and folder browsing. The WAN environment consisted of 256K or T1 throughput, and 20 or 100 millisecond latency.

A latency of 100 milliseconds is typical of a remote office WAN connection between New York and Los Angeles, while latency of 20 milliseconds is typical of a regional link such as between Boston and New York.

A “First Operation” is defined as a data transfer that has never been seen by the Steelhead appliance before (completely new data).

A “Subsequent Operation” is defined as a data transfer in which the Steelhead appliance has seen most or all of the data before (an incremental change or data that has been used by another application across the WAN).

PB-WFS013109

File copy: 2.37MB over 256K / 20ms Connection – Time to Complete (in seconds)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

WithoutSteelhead

FirstSteelhead Operation

SubsequentSteelhead Operations More than 279x faster

File copy: 37.7MB over T1 / 100ms Connection – Time to Complete (in seconds)

0 36 72 108 144 180 216 252 288 324 360

WithoutSteelhead

FirstSteelhead Operation

SubsequentSteelhead Operations More than 139x faster

DEploymEnT BEnEFiTS

Deploying Riverbed for Windows File Sharing provides multiple benefits, including:

Improved productivity.• Windows file transfer and folder browsing operations over the WAN can now be significantly accelerated. By dramati-cally reducing the time needed to complete common operations, users can save hours each day.

Faster more efficient collaboration.• By reducing the time for common Windows file operations by an order of magnitude or more, Steelhead appliances enable users in multiple offices to work collabora-tively on shared data, as Windows file operations can be performed more efficiently.

Reduced bandwidth utilization.• Steelhead appliances significantly reduce bandwidth utilization for remote offices with networked Windows file sharing, thus reducing IT costs.

Management Streamlining – RiOS simplifies the deployment and management of application acceleration infrastructure by employing a transparent approach to communications. RiOS enables easy deployment through auto-discovery of peers and auto-interception of traffic, with no reconfiguration of clients, servers, or routers necessary. RiOS simplifies ongoing management by providing simple but powerful Web-based and command line interfaces and reporting, as well as integrated, centralized management and configuration. RiOS also enables a host of additional management features including dozens of deployment configurations, capabilities for redundancy, optional IPsec encryption, RADIUS/TACACS+ authentication, and SNMP traps.

Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) Features

RiOS software combines patent-pending data reduction, TCP optimization, application-level latency optimizations, and remote office file and management functionality. Together, these technologies provide a comprehensive solution for enterprise WAN optimization, scaling across a range of appli-cations and network topologies to accelerate applications up to 100x. RiOS consists of four key components:

Data Streamlining – RiOS Data Streamlining works across all TCP applications to reduce bandwidth consumption by 60% to 95%. Data Streamlining works across Windows file sharing (including MS Office), Email (including MS Exchange and Lotus Notes), CAD, ERP, databases, and all other applications that use TCP, to ensure the same data is never sent more than once over the WAN. Data Streamlining also supports rules-based policy administration of optimization classes and packet marking for QoS and route control.

Transport Streamlining – RiOS Transport Streamlining reduces the number of TCP packets required to transfer data by 65% to 98%. Transport Streamlining overcomes TCP limitations by adapting transmission characteristics such as window scale, loss handling, congestion notification, and more. RiOS Transport Streamlining also enables greater utilization of high bandwidth, high latency connections with High-Speed TCP capabilities.

Application Streamlining – RiOS Application Streamlining provides additional order-of-magnitude application performance improvements by reducing application protocol chattiness up to 98% and minimizing application overhead. By minimizing application demands on the network such as application protocol round trips and required network connections, RiOS can provide massive throughput increases to applications including Windows file sharing (CIFS), Exchange (MAPI), Web (HTTP), and Database (MS-SQL). RiOS also includes important features for maximizing branch office productivity, such as file server capabilities and transparent pre-population of popular data.

PERFORMANCE BRIEF: Windows File Sharing

Folder copy: 8.11MB over T1 / 100ms Connection – Time to Complete (in seconds)

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

WithoutSteelhead

FirstSteelhead Operation

SubsequentSteelhead Operations More than 19x faster

*These results are based on the testing scenario presented in this paper. Your results may vary based on the conditions of your own network and the specifics of your own use cases.

Folder copy: 8.11MB over T1 / 100ms Connection – Bandwidth Utilization (in megabytes)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

WithoutSteelhead

FirstSteelhead Operation

SubsequentSteelhead Operations 98% less WAN traffic

Browse: Folder of 4,211 Files over 256K / 20ms Connection – Time to Complete (in seconds)

0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28

WithoutSteelhead

FirstSteelhead Operation

SubsequentSteelhead Operations More than 14x faster

Steelhead Appliances Accelerate a Broad Range of Applications

25x 100x or more ->0 5x 10x 15x 20x

ERP - Oracle 11i, SAP NetWeaver

ERP - Fat Client

Database - Oracle SQL

Database - MS-SQL

Software Distribution - SMS

Backup & Replication

FTP

Web - HTTP, HTTPS, Intranet

Mail - Notes

SharePoint

Mail - Exchange (MAPI)

File Sharing - Unix (NFS)

File Sharing - Windows (CIFS)

120

10

5

5

20

44

50

Document Management

50

60

Peak PerformanceMost Likely range

50

70

200

55

45

Typical Deployment Architecture

BRANCH OFFICEDATA CENTER

Steelhead

Clients

WAN

Steelhead

Storage

Windows FileServer

Tape Backup

DEploymEnT BEnEFiTS

Deploying Riverbed for Windows File Sharing provides multiple benefits, including:

Improved productivity.• Windows file transfer and folder browsing operations over the WAN can now be significantly accelerated. By dramati-cally reducing the time needed to complete common operations, users can save hours each day.

Faster more efficient collaboration.• By reducing the time for common Windows file operations by an order of magnitude or more, Steelhead appliances enable users in multiple offices to work collabora-tively on shared data, as Windows file operations can be performed more efficiently.

Reduced bandwidth utilization.• Steelhead appliances significantly reduce bandwidth utilization for remote offices with networked Windows file sharing, thus reducing IT costs.

Management Streamlining – RiOS simplifies the deployment and management of application acceleration infrastructure by employing a transparent approach to communications. RiOS enables easy deployment through auto-discovery of peers and auto-interception of traffic, with no reconfiguration of clients, servers, or routers necessary. RiOS simplifies ongoing management by providing simple but powerful Web-based and command line interfaces and reporting, as well as integrated, centralized management and configuration. RiOS also enables a host of additional management features including dozens of deployment configurations, capabilities for redundancy, optional IPsec encryption, RADIUS/TACACS+ authentication, and SNMP traps.

Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) Features

RiOS software combines patent-pending data reduction, TCP optimization, application-level latency optimizations, and remote office file and management functionality. Together, these technologies provide a comprehensive solution for enterprise WAN optimization, scaling across a range of appli-cations and network topologies to accelerate applications up to 100x. RiOS consists of four key components:

Data Streamlining – RiOS Data Streamlining works across all TCP applications to reduce bandwidth consumption by 60% to 95%. Data Streamlining works across Windows file sharing (including MS Office), Email (including MS Exchange and Lotus Notes), CAD, ERP, databases, and all other applications that use TCP, to ensure the same data is never sent more than once over the WAN. Data Streamlining also supports rules-based policy administration of optimization classes and packet marking for QoS and route control.

Transport Streamlining – RiOS Transport Streamlining reduces the number of TCP packets required to transfer data by 65% to 98%. Transport Streamlining overcomes TCP limitations by adapting transmission characteristics such as window scale, loss handling, congestion notification, and more. RiOS Transport Streamlining also enables greater utilization of high bandwidth, high latency connections with High-Speed TCP capabilities.

Application Streamlining – RiOS Application Streamlining provides additional order-of-magnitude application performance improvements by reducing application protocol chattiness up to 98% and minimizing application overhead. By minimizing application demands on the network such as application protocol round trips and required network connections, RiOS can provide massive throughput increases to applications including Windows file sharing (CIFS), Exchange (MAPI), Web (HTTP), and Database (MS-SQL). RiOS also includes important features for maximizing branch office productivity, such as file server capabilities and transparent pre-population of popular data.

PERFORMANCE BRIEF: Windows File Sharing

Folder copy: 8.11MB over T1 / 100ms Connection – Time to Complete (in seconds)

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

WithoutSteelhead

FirstSteelhead Operation

SubsequentSteelhead Operations More than 19x faster

*These results are based on the testing scenario presented in this paper. Your results may vary based on the conditions of your own network and the specifics of your own use cases.

Folder copy: 8.11MB over T1 / 100ms Connection – Bandwidth Utilization (in megabytes)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

WithoutSteelhead

FirstSteelhead Operation

SubsequentSteelhead Operations 98% less WAN traffic

Browse: Folder of 4,211 Files over 256K / 20ms Connection – Time to Complete (in seconds)

0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28

WithoutSteelhead

FirstSteelhead Operation

SubsequentSteelhead Operations More than 14x faster

Steelhead Appliances Accelerate a Broad Range of Applications

25x 100x or more ->0 5x 10x 15x 20x

ERP - Oracle 11i, SAP NetWeaver

ERP - Fat Client

Database - Oracle SQL

Database - MS-SQL

Software Distribution - SMS

Backup & Replication

FTP

Web - HTTP, HTTPS, Intranet

Mail - Notes

SharePoint

Mail - Exchange (MAPI)

File Sharing - Unix (NFS)

File Sharing - Windows (CIFS)

120

10

5

5

20

44

50

Document Management

50

60

Peak PerformanceMost Likely range

50

70

200

55

45

Typical Deployment Architecture

BRANCH OFFICEDATA CENTER

Steelhead

Clients

WAN

Steelhead

Storage

Windows FileServer

Tape Backup

2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

About RiverbedRiverbed Technology is the IT infrastructure performance company. The Riverbed family of wide area network (WAN) optimization solutions liberates businesses from common IT constraints by increasing application performance, enabling consolidation, and providing enterprise-wide network and application visibility – all while eliminating the need to increase bandwidth, storage or servers. Thousands of companies with distributed operations use Riverbed to make their IT infrastructure faster, less expensive and more responsive. Additional information about Riverbed (NASDAQ: RVBD) is available at www.riverbed.com

Riverbed Technology199 Fremont StreetSan Francisco, CA 94105Tel: +1 415 247 8800Fax: +1 415 247 8801www.riverbed.com

Riverbed Technology Pte. Ltd.391A Orchard Road #22-06/10Ngee Ann City Tower ASingapore 238873Tel: +65 6508-7400

Riverbed Technology Ltd. Farley Hall, London RoadBinfieldBracknellBerks RG42 4EUTel: +44 (0) 1344 401900

Riverbed Technology K.K.Shiba-Koen Plaza Building 9F3-6-9, Shiba, Minato-kuTokyo, Japan 105-0014Tel: +81 3 5419 1990

© 2009 Riverbed Technology. All rights reserved. Portions of Riverbed’s products are protected under Riverbed patents, as well as patents pending. Riverbed Technology, Riverbed, Steelhead, RiOS, Interceptor, Think Fast, the Riverbed logo, Mazu, Profiler, Atlas and Cascade are trademarks or registered trademarks of Riverbed Technology All other trademarks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.

PERFORMANCE BRIEF

Windows File SharingWindows File Sharing over the WANWindows file sharing uses the Common Internet File System (CIFS), a widely used file sharing and transport protocol for client/server communications for applications such as Microsoft operating systems and Windows-based networks over the WAN.

However, across the WAN, Windows file sharing performance is reduced dramatically. As enterprises continue to centralize IT resources for greater control and cost reduction, they continually struggle with performance challenges. They often unsuccessfully attempt to alleviate this problem by add-ing WAN bandwidth. However, adding more bandwidth does not directly address the problem. It is essential to both mitigate the impact of network latency and intelligently reduce the size of data transfers in order to accelerate Windows File Sharing over the WAN.

Steelhead-Enhanced Windows File Sharing

Riverbed significantly optimizes Windows file sharing to deliver LAN-like performance for remote offices by utilizing the Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS), which simultaneously addresses band-width constraints and the combined effects of latency and protocol inefficiencies. RiOS utilizes fine grain data reduction, as well as compression, to perform Data Streamlining, reducing bandwidth utilization by 60% to 95%. Transport and Application Streamlining minimize protocol chattiness, eliminating 65% to 98% of packet roundtrips across the WAN. RiOS also utilizes Transaction Predic-tion for CIFS, providing a dramatic performance improvement for Windows operations. In addition, unlike other approaches, Riverbed can accelerate functions beyond “drag-and-drop” file sharing, such as folder browsing and folder copying.

Performance Improvements

Test results show that Riverbed Steelhead appliances dramatically accelerate common Windows File Sharing operations, and significantly reduce WAN bandwidth utilization.

File copy – up to 279 times faster•

Folder copy – up to 19 times faster, up to 98% less WAN traffic•

Folder browse – up to 14 times faster•

TEST Summary

Windows file sharing is up to 279 »»times faster

Bandwidth utilization is reduced by »»up to 98%

Unlike alternative approaches that only »»optimize “drag-and-drop” file sharing, Riverbed also streamlines chattiness associated with functions like folder copying and browsing

TESTing ScEnario

These tests were performed using various file sizes, and also a 8.11MB folder containing many files. Riverbed Steelhead appliances accelerated Windows operations that included file copying, folder copying, and folder browsing. The WAN environment consisted of 256K or T1 throughput, and 20 or 100 millisecond latency.

A latency of 100 milliseconds is typical of a remote office WAN connection between New York and Los Angeles, while latency of 20 milliseconds is typical of a regional link such as between Boston and New York.

A “First Operation” is defined as a data transfer that has never been seen by the Steelhead appliance before (completely new data).

A “Subsequent Operation” is defined as a data transfer in which the Steelhead appliance has seen most or all of the data before (an incremental change or data that has been used by another application across the WAN).

PB-WFS013109

File copy: 2.37MB over 256K / 20ms Connection – Time to Complete (in seconds)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

WithoutSteelhead

FirstSteelhead Operation

SubsequentSteelhead Operations More than 279x faster

File copy: 37.7MB over T1 / 100ms Connection – Time to Complete (in seconds)

0 36 72 108 144 180 216 252 288 324 360

WithoutSteelhead

FirstSteelhead Operation

SubsequentSteelhead Operations More than 139x faster