McAfee Partners with Riverbed on Security

As a foundation for wide area network (WAN) optimization, many IT organizations already have Riverbed appliances deployed in their branch offices. As the processing capabilities of application accelerator appliances has increased over the years, the ability to deliver multiple network service simultaneously using virtual machine software from VMware has increased as well.

According to Apurva Dave, director of product marketing for Riverbed, the alliance between McAfee and Riverbed is part of a larger trend where providers of security software are partnering with companies that make IT infrastructure to embed their software directly on IT infrastructure that, if properly configured, should not result in any degradation in performance.

The end result, he added, is a significant reduction in security costs in terms of eliminating appliance sprawl at the edge of the network.

Pricing for the McAfee security software is $995 for the Steelhead 250/550 series and $2,495 for the 1050/2050 series.