Riverbed Technology has announced the availability of solutions developed in collaboration with VMware that can provide a reliable and consistent desktop virtualisation end user experience in those organisations that deploy VMware Horizon View 5.2.

The partnership between Riverbed and VMware has resulted in the support of multiple Riverbed performance solutions with VMware Horizon View deployments, including certification of Riverbed Granite with VMware Horizon View, to provide acceleration, control and management into virtualised desktop initiatives. Organisations that deploy VMware Horizon View with Riverbed performance solutions are able to achieve a more automated, flexible, scalable, and high performing VDI environment. As a result, organisations that seek to further extend the virtual edge to create a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) are able to reduce complexity while increasing efficiency and deliver the performance end users need.

Delivering on the technology preview announced in August 2012, Riverbed Granite has achieved VMware Ready status with VMware Horizon View 5.2, enabling high performance remote and branch office virtual desktop deployments and ensuring VMware Global Support Services (GSS) support for customers who use the combined solution. Granite allows organisations to overcome the challenges of wide area networks (WAN)s, such as limited bandwidth, latency, and unforeseeable outages when delivering virtual desktops to remote locations. In conjunction with the VMware View Branch Office Desktop (BOD) and Business Process Desktop (BPD) solutions, Granite delivers a high quality Horizon View user desktop experience while preserving consolidation and control in the data centre.

Riverbed offers a QoS solution for PCoIP® that delivers fine-grained control of Horizon View virtual desktop traffic. The combination of WAN optimisation and the ability to prioritise PCoIP at a granular level along with other traffic that traverses the same WAN helps organisations achieve the appropriate balance between desktop virtualisation and business applications.

New Riverbed Stingray Traffic Manager integration with Horizon View provides acceleration, business continuity, fine-grained application-level control and high availability for end-users that require constant access to desktops, applications and data from any device or location.

Stingray Traffic Manager offers Global Load Balancing (GLB), secure socket layer (SSL) Offload and Riverbed Stingray TrafficScript, a programming language used to create rules to address problems including security vulnerabilities, application bugs, or application incompatibilities.

Released in Oct 2012, Cascade 10.0 delivers the needed network performance management within Horizon View environments, giving organisations the critical ability to pinpoint, understand, and troubleshoot in VDI environments. Cascade 10.0 provides visibility of the PCoIP protocol for actions such as screen refresh, print and type. These details are critical for troubleshooting and optimising the usage and performance of interactive applications in Horizon View environments.

“By deepening our partnership with VMware, we give enterprises the ability to provide end users a seamless experience when accessing their desktop, applications and data regardless of location. Simultaneously, we are enabling enterprises to benefit from greater control and flexibility in distributed organisations,” says Global Alliances and Business Development vice president Venugopal Pai.

“The strategic partnership with Riverbed enables organisations to benefit from greater optimisation and visibility in VMware Horizon View environments including Branch Office Desktop (BOD) and Business Process Desktop (BPD) deployments. The comprehensive suite of Riverbed performance solutions combined with VMware Horizon View gives end users the reliable experience they come to expect while helping provide enterprises with a way to reduce complexity, achieve greater cost savings and manage IT more efficiently,” says VMware Global Strategic Alliances vice president Parag Patel.