OPNET Delivers Visibility into WAN Environments Optimized with Riverbed

WAN optimization and application acceleration provide dramatic performance improvements to applications, potentially eliminating the need for additional bandwidth. However, WAN optimization technology reduces visibility into the end-to-end performance and behavior of these applications.

OPNET has entered into a partnership with Riverbed Technology, the performance leader in wide-area data service (WDS) solutions for companies worldwide, in order to restore visibility into WAN environments that have been optimized by Riverbed.

OPNET Solutions

OPNET’s solutions provide real-time end-user experience monitoring and deep-level troubleshooting of Riverbed optimized environments.

AppResponse Xpert™ is an appliance-based solution that spans monitoring, measurement and detection of application performance violations, enhancing visibility into Riverbed optimized environments.

AppTransaction Xpert™ provides deep level application troubleshooting to determine the root-cause of a slow performing application or a misconfigured Riverbed Steelhead appliance.

Analyze Performance Prior to Steelhead Deployment

OPNET’s AppResponse Xpert monitors application response time prior to deploying WAN optimization:

• Establish a performance baseline to determine the best configuration for Steelhead appliances
• Quantify the components of end-to-end delay to rapidly identify the applications that would benefit most from implementing WAN acceleration
• Estimate the projected impact on application response time

Perform End-to-End Performance Monitoring and Analysis

Measure the before-and-after measurements to evaluate the benefits associated with a Steelhead deployment:

• Continuously monitor application response time from the end-user perspective
• Automatically alert when performance thresholds are violated
• Evaluate and quantify benefits from Steelhead deployment

View the summary of delays for a Riverbed accelerated application.

AppResponse Xpert on Riverbed Services Platform (RSP)

AppResponse Xpert on Riverbed Services Platform (RSP) is a software only virtual appliance that runs on the Riverbed Services Platform. AppResponse Xpert on RSP offers significant benefits to Steelhead users.

• Leverage your existing investment in the Steelhead platform with a “one-box” solution. Increase visibility into application performance at remote sites without the need for an expanded branch office hardware footprint.
• Automatically identify and diagnose application performance issues in real-time. AppResponse Xpert accelerates problem resolution, enhancing application performance and IT staff productivity.
• Enhance visibility into the accelerated traffic on the Steelhead appliance to provide an accurate end-to-end view of application response. AppResponse Xpert easily quantifies the impact of the Steelhead appliances on application traffic.

Continuously monitor applications and the end-user experience.


Automatically baseline and alarm on threshold violations.


Quantify and visualize benefits from Steelhead appliances.

A joint OPNET and Riverbed solution provides:

• Accelerated responsiveness of applications in a WAN environment
• Cost savings by enabling IT infrastructure consolidation while avoiding performance penalties
• Real-time monitoring of application response times, SLAs, traffic, etc. to quantify and visualize the benefit of Steelhead appliances
• Troubleshooting capabilities to prove that slow response times are not necessarily caused by the network, as well as the ability to determine actual root-cause, such as server performance or application behavior