Riverbed Launches New AI-Driven Network Observability Solutions

In a landscape defined by exponential data growth and increasingly complex application environments, Riverbed has taken a significant step forward in redefining network visibility for enterprise IT. With the unveiling of its latest AI-driven intelligent network observability solutions, Riverbed is transforming how organisations manage and optimise their networks. These innovations are purpose-built to empower IT teams with the tools to anticipate, identify, and resolve network issues in real-time, before they evolve into operational disruptions. The launch not only enhances the capabilities of the Riverbed Platform but also reinforces its position in a rapidly growing market, as evidenced by a 92% year-over-year surge in observability bookings during the first half of 2025.

Performance Breakthroughs Backed by AI and Flexibility

The new solutions include the release of Riverbed’s xx90 appliance series, tailored for the company’s AppResponse, NetProfiler, and Flow Gateway platforms. These appliances deliver up to three times the performance of their predecessors without increasing cost, underscoring Riverbed’s focus on performance optimization without budgetary inflation. By introducing this hardware alongside the Riverbed Flex Subscription model, the company allows IT departments to deploy licenses fluidly across hardware, virtual machines, or cloud environments. This consumption-based model provides financial flexibility and eliminates redundant software expenditures, giving enterprises a strategic advantage in resource management. The xx90 launch also marks Riverbed’s third major release of the year, signalling a steady rhythm of innovation.

“Our relentless pace of innovation continues to set the standard in our industry—and it’s only accelerating,” said Dave Donatelli, CEO of Riverbed. “With today’s launch, we’re unveiling our next-generation Riverbed xx90 systems, offering dramatically higher performance and efficiency, alongside significant software advancements in network performance monitoring and enterprise-wide observability—now packaged and integrated with Riverbed IQ for AI-driven insights. These new solutions respond directly to our customers’ priorities: streamlining tool sets, unifying and simplifying network management, and automating for efficiency. And, with the Riverbed Flex offer, customers gain even greater software licensing flexibility, investment protection and cost savings.”

Essentials Bundle Tailored for Hybrid Complexity

With the increasing demands of hybrid network architectures, Riverbed’s new Intelligent Network Observability Essentials bundle is crafted to simplify and accelerate incident resolution across sprawling digital infrastructures. Available with the purchase of AppResponse or NetProfiler, the bundle delivers an integrated suite of tools that blend AI, automation, and contextual visibility. Riverbed IQ, a SaaS-based artificial intelligence engine, brings intelligent diagnostics without the overhead of extra infrastructure. Complementing this is Workspaces, which offers role-based dashboards tailored to unify network insights across packet, flow, and endpoint data. Seamless Grafana integration and an intuitive Topology Viewer further enrich visibility, connecting the dots between network topology, application behavior, and user experience.

Flexible Licensing to Match Evolving Enterprise Priorities

The licensing flexibility embedded within Riverbed Flex plays a critical role in enabling organizations to scale their observability strategies in lockstep with business growth. Through license portability, customers can reallocate usage across different deployment models, on-prem, virtualized, or cloud-native—without re-purchasing entitlements. The operational benefits include simplified budgeting through predictable, subscription-based pricing and long-term value preservation through a lower total cost of ownership. This approach aligns with modern procurement models, supporting IT teams as they navigate priorities such as resilience, digital performance, and automation-readiness.

Powering the Distributed Enterprise with High-Throughput Infrastructure

At the core of this rollout is the xx90 appliance family, engineered to meet the rigorous demands of today’s distributed enterprises. These systems are not only optimized for high-throughput performance but are also capable of delivering uncompromised packet and flow capture across geographically dispersed networks. AppResponse 11.21, now enhanced for deployment on xx90 systems, enables real-time analysis of encrypted IPSec ESP tunnel traffic while offering sustained packet capture rates above 50 Gbps. Coupled with scalable modular storage that exceeds 2.4 petabytes, this update addresses the scale and speed required for effective encrypted traffic inspection and compliance monitoring.

Next-Level Flow Monitoring with NetProfiler and Flow Gateway

The same xx90 platform powers the latest iterations of Riverbed’s flow monitoring solutions, NetProfiler and Flow Gateway version 10.29. These tools bring dramatic improvements to flow visibility and analytics, delivering three times faster reporting and double the throughput of previous generations. The enhancements include dynamic flow load balancing and comprehensive support for Versa SD-WAN, allowing enterprises to seamlessly scale their monitoring capabilities as their SD-WAN architectures evolve. The improved performance ensures that network data is collected and analyzed in its full fidelity, enabling precision at every layer of network observability.

Redefining the Future of Network Operations

Together, Riverbed’s new hardware and software offerings represent a foundational shift toward more intelligent, scalable, and agile network operations. The synergy between AI-powered analytics, flexible deployment models, and high-performance infrastructure allows enterprises to future-proof their network observability strategies. As business environments become more dynamic and digitally dependent, Riverbed's latest innovations position IT teams to move from reactive problem-solving to proactive, data-driven optimization. This marks a new chapter in enterprise observability, one where automation, context, and intelligence converge to deliver uninterrupted digital experiences.