Riverbed and Wowza Partner to Deliver Industry’s First Accelerated Enterprise Flash® Video Solution
Best-of-Breed Solution Enables 98% Reduction in Video Traffic on Enterprise WAN
San Jose & San Francisco, CA, April 1, 2008 — Wowza Media Systems, an emerging leader in streaming media server software, and Riverbed Technology (Nasdaq: RVBD), the technology and market leader in wide-area data services (WDS), today announced a partnership that empowers enterprises to take full advantage of Flash, the most widely used video format on the Internet, with the industry’s first WDS-accelerated streaming solution.
Under the terms of the partnership, the RiOS Services Platform (RSP) runs Wowza Media Server in a protected partition on Steelhead appliances, so IT can easily deploy and manage the software without the need for additional hardware in remote offices. Users of the Wowza Media Server Pro software module will experience reductions of video traffic over the wide area network (WAN) by as much as 98%, for both live and on-demand Flash video content.
"Enterprises are increasingly using video as means of communication for live broadcasts of CEO addresses, VOD training, and more, said David Stubenvoll, CEO and Co-Founder, Wowza Media Systems. At the same time, enterprises also realize that video can put a huge strain on their WAN and costs can skyrocket quickly. With Wowza Pro on Steelhead appliances, systems administrators are able to dramatically reduce WAN video traffic, thereby eliminating this cost factor as a barrier to deploying video in the enterprise."
Wowza Media Server Pro is a proven Flash streaming media server software with over 6,000 global licensees in industries ranging from entertainment, broadcasting, education, and government to Internet commerce, social media, and data services. It has been recognized as one of the top three media servers, placing alongside Adobe and Microsoft in the 2007 Streaming Media Readers Choice awards. Wowza Pro is also praised by its customers as the smart choice for Flash video streaming.
"The strong industry reputation and the exceptional performance of Wowza Media Server Pro were just two of the many reasons we chose Wowza to be a video delivery solution partner," commented Jess Leroy, director of product management at Riverbed. "We are excited to make this best-of-class software available to our customers."
The Riverbed RSP is an extensible data services platform that enables the delivery of virtualized edge services without the need to deploy additional physical servers at remote or branch offices. The game-changing RSP allows customers to deploy best-of-breed services from their choice of vendors on Steelhead appliances in a self-contained partition to minimize the hardware infrastructure footprint at the branch office. In a typical RSP deployment, companies can run serverless branch offices by simplifying IT infrastructure to include just a router and a Steelhead appliance.
While WDS is highly valued, customer demand is fragmented among the array of other edge services desired, including video delivery. By offering an open development platform, architected to provide a variety of hooks and taps into the data flow with the appropriate module, Riverbed matches the customer need.
About Wowza Media Systems
Wowza Media Systems, a software company headquartered in San Jose, CA, is a developer of interactive streaming media server software. Its flagship product, Wowza Media Server Pro, features an innovative server architecture that delivers unmatched performance, functionality, and scalability. Wowza Media Server Pro enables customers like Macy's, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cengage (formerly Thomson Learning), Interoute, and Julius Blum GmbH to deliver interactive and entertaining Flash applications and content, including video on demand, live video distribution, video recording, and chat. Wowza Media Server Pro is deployed by over 6,000 global licensees in a broad range of industries, including entertainment, social media, advertising, enterprise, education, government, and Internet commerce. For more information, visit Wowza Media Systems at www.wowzamedia.com.
About Riverbed
Riverbed Technology is the technology and market leader in wide-area data services (WDS) solutions for companies worldwide. By enabling application performance over the wide area network (WAN) that is orders of magnitude faster than what users experience today, Riverbed is changing the way people work, and enabling a distributed workforce that can collaborate as if they were local. Additional information about Riverbed (Nasdaq: RVBD) is available at www.riverbed.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the expected demand for Riverbed's products and services, statements regarding implementation of Riverbed solutions that may suggest likely or certain outcomes, and statements relating to Riverbed's ability to meet the needs of distributed organizations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include our ability to react to trends and challenges in our business and the markets in which we operate; our ability to anticipate market needs or develop new or enhanced products to meet those needs; the adoption rate of our products; our ability to establish and maintain successful relationships with our distribution partners; our ability to compete in our industry; fluctuations in demand, sales cycles and prices for our products and services; shortages or price fluctuations in our supply chain; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; general political, economic and market conditions and events; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in our documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. More information about these and other risks that may impact Riverbed's business are set forth in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 15, 2008. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Any future product, feature or related specification that may be referenced in this release are for information purposes only and are not commitments to deliver any technology or enhancement. Riverbed reserves the right to modify future product plans at any time.
Wowza and related marks are trademarks of Wowza Media Systems, Inc. Adobe and Flash are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Riverbed Technology, Riverbed, Steelhead, RiOS, and the Riverbed logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Riverbed Technology, Inc. All other trademarks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.
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Media Contacts:
Bill Lessard
PRwithBrains for Wowza Media Systems
+1 (914)476-6089
wlessard@prwithbrains.com
Kristalle Ward
Riverbed Technology
415-247-8140
kristalle.ward@riverbed.com
Robb Henshaw
Horn Group for Riverbed Technology
415-905-4028
rhenshaw@horngroup.com
