Load Balancer Featured Article

Riverbed Cascade Extends Network Visibility Deeper into Virtualized Data Centers and Load Balancers

By Ashok Bindra, TMCnet Contributor

To deliver the needed visibility to virtualized data centers, as well as to data centers using load balancing application delivery controllers (ADCs), IT performance company Riverbed (News - Alert) Technology has added new capabilities to its Cascade application-aware network performance management (NPM) solution. The new release, Cascade 9.5, extends end-to-end service performance monitoring and troubleshooting from the remote LAN, across the wide area network (WAN), to deeper into the virtualized data center.

According to Riverbed Technology, Cascade 9.5 now includes Cascade Profiler and Virtual Cascade Shark. In addition, it tightens the integration between Cascade Shark and Cascade Profiler by bringing support for voice over IP (VOIP) protocols and quality metrics into Cascade Profiler. While Cascade Profiler is the first NPM solution to provide a wizard-based, streamlined configuration process for service monitoring across ADCs, Virtual Cascade Shark is the first product to offer continuous packet capture and performance analysis in virtual environments.

Currently, enterprise customers deploy ADCs to optimize application delivery, flexibility and resiliency. But, by masking the necessary metrics and application dependencies, load balancer ADCs create significant visibility problems for network operations, according to Riverbed. Thus, limiting their ability to monitor for end-to-end performance or troubleshoot degradations, said the maker. However, said Riverbed, Cascade 9.5 automates the discovery and monitoring of load balanced applications.

Riverbed said that Cascade 9.5 integrates with ADCs to bridge the visibility gap between the client-side and server-side connections of load balancers, providing IT operations with a view of application performance.

“The irresistible tide of server virtualization has combined with increasingly strategic deployments of application and network optimization technologies to create new and troublesome visibility barriers for IT operations,”  Jim Frey, managing research director at EMA (News - Alert), commented. “This requires a fundamental re-assessment of performance monitoring and management technologies due to fast emerging requirements for integrated visibility and virtualized instrumentation. The Riverbed Cascade solution is evolving in this very direction, and coupled with the balance of the Riverbed optimization portfolio, comprises a unique and compelling combination of visibility and control for the evolving, virtualized enterprise IT infrastructure.”

Besides using ADCs to optimize application delivery, enterprises are also virtualizing their data centers and consolidating IT resources to achieve flexibility and cost savings. Consequently, like ADCs, virtualization is also creating visibility challenges for IT operations teams, because once an application enters a virtualized environment, they lose visibility into application performance. The new Virtual Cascade Shark software provides the real-time visibility needed to manage and troubleshoot application performance as it traverses the virtual switch in VMware ESX environments, stated Riverbed.

 The maker said that Virtual Cascade Shark monitors all inter-virtual machine traffic, exporting application-enhanced traffic metrics to the Cascade Profiler performance management dashboard, for centralized service-level discovery and monitoring and accelerated troubleshooting.  In addition, it also continuously captures packets and stores them on the local server or in a storage area network (SAN) for back-in-time analysis with Cascade Pilot network analysis software.

In another statement, Dimitri Vlachos, senior director of marketing and product management, Cascade Business Unit at Riverbed, said, “Virtualization and load balancing have fundamentally transformed the data center. While these technologies provide amazing benefits, they also create real visibility challenges. For end-to-end performance, IT operations need visibility into all application and network traffic across all IT environments – physical and virtual, from the user to the deepest depths of the data center. Cascade provides enterprise customers a unique, cost-effective, and easy-to-use solution for monitoring and troubleshooting today's complex IT environment and the critical applications that run over it.”

Riverbed said that the enhanced Cascade 9.5 will be generally available in this quarter.

Back to Load Balancer Featured Articles >>