Granite

Riverbed^® Granite^™is edge virtual server infrastructure (Edge-VSI). Granite radically reduces operational burden on IT managers while massively increasing their control over the infrastructure—all at a lower total cost of ownership. Granite is the innovation that enables an architectural disruption known as Edge Virtual Server Infrastructure (Edge-VSI). Edge-VSI enables the best of all worlds: 100% consolidated data and applications that deliver LAN performance at the edge over the WAN.

In the past, data centers and edge offices were managed through separate operational processes, procedures and infrastructures. Granite bridges the gap between the data center and global offices at the edge, allowing for seamless integration between data center and globally distributed operations. Granite introduces a new architectural approach that does for edge servers outside of the data center what virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) did for desktops: allow IT to consolidate and manage all edge servers in the data center. Granite does what was previously thought impossible: it allows storage to be decoupled from its server over thousands of miles of distance—and actually work as if the storage were local to the server. End users in edge locations get uncompromised performance, while IT management is able to manage, backup, provision, patch, expand, and protect the data all within the four walls of the data center.

Complete Server and Storage Consolidation – Certain business applications still require local servers and storage to meet the performance requirements of end users. With Granite, IT can successfully separate branch computing from data storage eliminating the need to purchase and support servers and storage traditionally hosted in branch offices for performance reasons.Users and applications in the branch experience local performance while data is consolidated securely in a central location.

SAN over the WAN – With Granite, storage administrators can extend a data center SAN to a remote location, even over a low bandwidth link. Granite delivers business agility, enabling companies to effectively deliver global storage infrastructure anywhere it is needed.

Riverbed Granite provides the following capabilities:

• Innovative block-storage optimization ensures that that data is centrally managed yet always available to support business operations in the branch even in the event of a WAN outage
• Integration with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service enables consistent point-in-time data snapshots and seamless integration with backup applications
• Integration with industry-standard Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) authenticates users and hosts
• A secure vault protects sensitive information using AES 256-bit encryption
• Leverages solid state disks (SSDs) to guarantee data durability and performance
• An active-active high availability (HA) deployment option for Granite ensures LUN availability for remote sites
• Easy to use wizard configuration automates and simplifies setup
• Customizable reports provide visibility to key utilization, performance, and diagnostic information