Tech Brief: Network acceleration

• By Joab Jackson
• Mar 15, 2006

RiverBed Technologies Inc. of San Francisco has released two small appliances that hasten wide area network throughput. The Steelhead 100 ($3,495) and Steelhead 200 ($4,995) are targeted at small, remote offices. You place one unit at the remote locale and another at the main office. The appliances work in tandem to cut down on the chattiness of TCP/IP routing and intra-application messaging. They also store and reuse common byte patterns, said Bob Gilbert, senior product manager for the company.