Riverbed and Verizon Partnership Improves Connectivity to AWS

As the largest public cloud provider in the world, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has a formidable presence that is more than the combined market share of Google, IBM and Microsoft. It has a clear advantage when it comes to reach and price points, which makes it an ideal platform for organizations to team up and use AWS to deliver cloud-based solutions. Riverbed Technology and Verizon have come together for this very reason to deliver AWS Direct Connect Bundle to improve network connections to the cloud so customers can have faster and more reliable access.

The delivery of this type of service is being driven by the increased mobility of employees along with the collaborative environment in which today's workforce operates. Enterprises have to have the capability to bring together multiple locations and employees in a secure, fast and consistent network access ecosystem no matter where they are or what device they're using.

To address this trend, hybrid architectures are being deployed by enterprises in which applications and data are hosted in the cloud and the data center. According to Riverbed, this has created a complex environment in network traffic in the delivery of applications.

“Working with cloud services providers like AWS is a natural extension of these solutions and meets the needs of today’s hybrid networking environments, allowing businesses to support their digital transformation initiatives,” said Phil Harris, senior vice president and general manager, Service Provider Segment Vertical and Strategy at Riverbed.

This bundle will help organizations connect different branch offices and data centers to AWS environments through managed network services by combining Riverbed’s SteelHead WAN optimization solution and Verizon’s Secure Cloud Interconnect and Virtual Network Services. Enterprises will be able to provide secure, optimized access to AWS services in a hybrid network.

These are not new solutions, but together they are delivering new capabilities that will allow enterprises to use the same storage and network management tools used in private clouds while migrating to public or hybrid architectures to provide connectivity to their customers or employees. Together they can accelerate bandwidth, latency and migration to the cloud, along with improved application performance.

“With our new solution set, enterprises will be able to balance agility, performance, cost and security necessitated by the growth of mobile-to-cloud applications and the Internet of Things,” said Shawn Hakl, vice president of networking and innovation, Verizon.