Data Sheet
SteelHead CX
Application acceleration for the Business Challenge
digital enterprise The traditional enterprise has evolved into a hybrid one
with people, apps, and data everywhere. More and more
Today’s Riverbed® SteelHead™ CX is engineered for
business-critical applications are moving to public clouds
fast, seamless network integration into remote sites
for SaaS and IaaS while others remain on-premises in
and branch offices, or data centers with scalable
datacenters. Additionally, organizations are leveraging
performance designed to support a growing number
combinations of hybrid networks (MPLS, Internet VPN,
of users, devices, data and application types.
and public Internet) for real-time application delivery
As the market leader in application acceleration, to location independent users.
SteelHead CX has proven to dramatically speed up
IT is under continued pressure to deliver the highest
the performance of applications anywhere in the
level of performance in a complex and evolving hybrid
organization while delivering the best end-user
network. However, unpredictable application behavior,
experience even under sub optimal network conditions.
reduced visibility, and limited control, can all decrease
Riverbed makes it easy to assure fast, agile, secure application performance. As a result, businesses and
delivery of any application to anyone, anywhere. users often experience decreased productivity.
Key Benefits
Accelerated application Integrated visibility Enhanced control and
performance and reduced • Provides visibility into SteelHeads management
bandwidth consumption with SteelCentral NetProfiler for • Performs ongoing centralized
response time analysis management through SteelCentral
• Reduces bandwidth utilization
by up to 95%, deferring costly • Validates QoS classifications and Controller for SteelHead, Web
network bandwidth upgrades acceleration benefits Interface, or from CLI
• Increases performance by • Improves network troubleshooting • Discovers and reports on
up to 100x for on-premises capabilities through enhanced applications in use across the
applications packet capture for analysis with organization
Riverbed® SteelCentral™ Netshark • Leverages simplified configuration
• Leverages application awareness
to distinguish between business with REST API for hybrid features—
and non-critical network traffic to path selection, QoS, and secure
select optimal acceleration path transport—and custom API scripts
for monitoring
• Enables rapid, resilient, and
secure replication and backup • Secures optimized traffic between
over the WAN SteelHead solutions across private
and Internet links with standards-
• Available with virtual platforms
based encryption
such as VMware, Cisco CVIM,
and KVM-based Nutanix AHV • SteelCentral Controller indicates
configuration changes as
compared to policy
• (RBAC) Role-based access
control for easier administration
and security when used with
WinSec Controller
Riverbed SteelHead CX Data Sheet 2
Feature Specifications
SteelHead CX-580/CX-780/CX-3080
Small office appliances that leverages the full performance capabilities of the hardware. Offers a flexible feature
set broken into 3 tiers (Essentials/Standard/Enterprise) depending on the customer requirements.
Essentials Standard Enterprise
Description Basic WAN Optimization Full WAN Optimization with Full Featured App Acceleration
App Acceleration + Next Gen Features
Sample Features • Full Deduplication Essentials + Standard +
• TCP Optimization / MXTCP • HTTPS Optimization • Data Center Protocol Blades
• Hybrid Networking: QOS / • Most Protocol Blades (MAPI, (Replication, NFS)
Secure Transport / Path SMB, CIFS) • Exotic Protocols – Lotus Notes
Selection WebProxy SCPS / FIPS
• SaaS Accelerator
SteelHead CX-5080/CX-7080
Fully featured appliances designed for large offices or datacenters that delivers best in class WAN optimization to
accelerate the performance of enterprise applications. Licensing tiers determine the bandwidth and connection
performance boundaries
Enterprise
Model 5080 7080
Maximum Connections 20,000 / 60,000 100,000 / 150,000 / 220,000
Maximum Bandwidth 300 / 622 (Mbps) 1000 / 2000 / 3000 (Mbps)
Full Featured WAN Optimization
(See specification sheet for details)
About Riverbed
Riverbed enables organizations to maximize visibility and performance across networks, applications and end-user
devices, so they can fully capitalize on their IT, hybrid workplace and digital investments. Riverbed solutions enable
organizations to visualize, optimize, remediate and accelerate the performance of any network for any application,
while supporting business objectives to mitigate cybersecurity risk and enhance the digital experience for all end
users. Riverbed offers two best-in-class product lines: end-to-end visibility solutions – including Network Performance
Management and Digital Experience Management (APM and EUEM) – that delivers actionable insights; and
network and acceleration solutions, including application acceleration (SaaS, client and cloud acceleration),
WAN optimization, and enterprise-grade SD-WAN. Riverbed’s 30,000+ customers include 95% of the Fortune 100.
Learn more at riverbed.com.
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