Shamus McGillicuddy, research director for the network management practice at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), explains Riverbed’s Data Store approach as an enabling technology to Riverbed’s overall observability platform that references multiple siloed databases and uses AI to intelligently gather only the data that is relevant to a given operation. “For instance, if someone wants to troubleshoot a problem, Data Store will find all data relevant to that problem across multiple tools. This is a nimble approach to mining data across silos without having to build a missive data lake,” McGillicuddy says.
Riverbed’s Lenton says this approach to data is a technological innovation that leaves a “garbage truck” or data where it is and instead creates a precise, intelligent method of data access and analysis.
“The reality is that while it would be ideal for all data to be located in one location, today’s highly distributed IT environments and large volumes of data being generated make that challenging,” says Bob Laliberte, principal analyst, networking and observability at theCUBE Research. “So, by leveraging a distributed data store organizations can support larger environments and retain data for longer periods of time. Riverbed has executed really well, ensuring the data store is tightly integrated with the platform. It’s all about getting the right data at the right time.”
The platform approach will help customers tame the proliferation of IT monitoring and management tools across their environments, Riverbed asserts. EMA data supports the premise that IT leaders want to reduce the number of tools they use and maintain, but at the same time, research also suggests IT continues to want to take advantage of best-of-breed options.
“I surveyed 351 IT decision-makers earlier this year for a research report on Network Observability: 83% said they had multiple network observability tools, and 80% of multi-tool respondents said that tool consolidation is a high priority. However, consolidation is hard. Many NetOps pros tell me they want best-of-breed tools for SNMP monitoring, flow monitoring, packet monitoring, synthetic network monitoring, etc.,” EMA’s McGillicuddy says. “Riverbed is offering the best of both worlds. Its platform approach is actually a suite of individual products that are integrated through enabling technology like Data Store and Riverbed IQ. Riverbed essentially brings the platform to you, regardless of what best-of-breed tools you are hanging onto.”
Most of the new features and updates are available to Riverbed customers now. Agentic AI will be generally available in Q2 of this year, and NPM+ Packet Capture will be available in Q3 2025.
