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Application and wide-area network acceleration promises to speed up the performance of networks, data centers and software. The question that often comes up, though, is what’s the true business benefit for the investment in acceleration? Riverbed is providing its partners and customers with the ability to see ROI and future investment needs in a convenient dashboard.

The release of Cascade 9.0 and Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) 6.5 will include reporting tools aimed at the executive class that provide business analytics to show what optimization and acceleration are doing for an organization’s performance.

For partners, Riverbed says the new tools will give them the ability to give their customers deeper insights from a business perspective on operational performance and return on investment.

For customers, Riverbed says the tools will detail performance attributes that show not only where the optimization investments are paying off, but where future investments are needed to ensure productivity.

What Riverbed is aiming for in these releases is relevancy. At a time of cheap bandwidth, high competition among vendors for sales and rapidly commoditizing hardware, it’s getting difficult to justify expenditures for add-on equipment and software.  Some solution providers hit resistance because customers simply don’t know what they’ll get out of WAN optimization.

“There’s pushback, but also a desire to understand what their ROI will be over a couple of years,” says Nik Rouda, director of solutions and vertical marketing at Riverbed.

Bandwidth-intensive technologies such as virtualized desktops, expanded VoIP and unified communications, video conferencing, and cloud-based applications are going to increase in adoption. Midmarket and enterprise businesses will need optimization to ensure high availability and productivity from these applications. And, moreover, they’ll need sound and accurate reporting to ensure service-level agreements and quality-of-service are being met.

Riverbed provides its partners with tools to engage in real conversations with business decision-makers about the benefits it delivers to technology investments.  Part of the value proposition Riverbed is trying to bring the table is that it adds value to other technologies, such as core networking gear and applications. The reporting-added RiOS and Cascade will provide partners with a means for demonstrated the value-amplifier that comes with WAN optimization appliances such as Riverbed’s Steelhead.

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Lawrence M. Walsh is CEO and president of The 2112 Group, a technology business advisory service that specializes in optimizing indirect channels and partner relationships. He’s also the executive director of the Channel Vanguard Council. He is the former publisher of Channel Insider and editor of VARBusiness Magazine. You can reach him at lmwalsh@the2112group.com.

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Larry Walsh:@lmwalsh2112| Channelnomics: @channelnomics