Riverbed Offers Enhanced Citrix XenDesktop Solutions

Written by Dave Courbanou 1
April 19, 2011

Riverbed Technology, known for its WAN optimization solutions including its Steelhead appliance, has made specific optimizations to support Citrix XenDesktop virtual desktop solutions. If WAN performance issues in virtual desktop deployments have been a problem in your network, Riverbed may have the solution. Read on for the product details.

Virtualization bottlenecks have become inevitable as more organizations turn to virtualizing to save on data center costs. But without prioritization of packets, issues including latency and limited bandwidth can cause virtual desktop performance to be nearly unusable. Steelhead’s latest upgrade helps overcome those common issues, supporting not just XenDesktop traffic but also XenApp, VMware View, and Microsoft RDP and Remote FX. Resellers can drop in the appliance and “significantly” enhance virtual desktop productivity, according to Riverbed.

The company noted its latest enhancements allow up to a 60 percent bandwidth reduction in Citrix ICA traffic, when compared to uncompressed traffic. With increased quality-of-service controls inside the Steelhead appliances, a company can now gain a better grasp on all its packets, allowing improved performance without having to overprovision bandwidth. This translates to a better use of resources all around. Fewer bottlenecks can mean greater adoption of other virtualization technologies, so resellers might have a one-two punch if they bundle Riverhead with other virtualization packages.

Riverbed also has enabled custom Citrix optimizations to further help accelerate Citrix deployment and management. For Citrix, and Citrix partners, this could be a big help in adding value to an existing or new deployment. This Citrix-specific boost also seems beneficial for Citrix’s growth strategies for 2011.

Sign up for The VAR Guy’s Weekly Newsletter, Webcasts and Resource Center. Follow The VAR Guy via RSS, Facebook and Twitter. Follow experts at VARtweet. Read The VAR Guy’s editorial disclosures here.