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Steelhead pros and cons

Vendor: Riverbed
4.1 out of 5
Badge Leader

Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Steelhead provides strong TCP optimization by caching connections, making future connections faster.
The compression and replication features of Steelhead significantly enhance data handling and traffic management.
Steelhead's scalable data referencing and cloud migration optimization greatly improve workflow and user performance.
Steelhead efficiently saves on ISP costs by reducing actual traffic load through its optimization features.
The stability and quick technical support of Steelhead help avoid service interruptions, ensuring smooth operation.

CONS

Application response time and network performance could be improved.
Steelhead should include a network switch in a future release.
Integration capabilities with SDN and other systems need enhancement.
Switching firewalls in Steelhead results in loss of active connections.
Oracle DB traffic experiences lag and slowness while other applications perform fine.
 

Steelhead Pros review quotes

AM
Senior Technical Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Apr 13, 2020
TCP optimization... caches a particular TCP connection and the next time a user uses that connection he will reach the destination easily.
Djurre Woudstra - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at a legal firm with 201-500 employees
Jan 23, 2021
I find the most valuable to be the compression and exchange replication.
JOHNOKUNADE - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Support Engineer at Nigeria LNG Limited
Aug 18, 2021
It is very easy to install the solution.
Learn what your peers think about Steelhead. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
880,435 professionals have used our research since 2012.
RM
IT Network Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Nov 7, 2021
The compression of Riverbed is very powerful. It can also handle large quantities of traffic.
Akhilesh Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at M.TECH Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.
Aug 2, 2022
Scalable data referencing is a great feature.
SS
Consultant at Edge Tech Providers
Feb 17, 2023
SteelHead works from the application. I use it to optimize traffic from Amazon. It is mainly used for customers who need to increase the traffic to 33K. For other users, it has been more of an operation.
MK
Datacenter & Infrastructure Senior Engineer at BMB
Mar 14, 2023
Steelhead is stable, and it can even help you avoid service interruption in the event of a power outage. If your hardware fails, technical support will replace your device quickly.
Chaudhary Muhammad Moez Manzar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Nov 17, 2023
The most valuable feature of Steelhead is its optimization capabilities.
TS
IT Security Operations Engineer at Midwest Bank of South Africa
Mar 5, 2024
The connectivity to speed is the valuable feature.
JOHNOKUNADE - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Support Engineer at Nigeria LNG Limited
Apr 25, 2024
One of our most valuable features is Steelhead's cloud migration optimization. Moving to the cloud helped optimize our workflow, improving performance for end-users.
 

Steelhead Cons review quotes

AM
Senior Technical Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Apr 13, 2020
Application response time and network performance could be improved.
Djurre Woudstra - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at a legal firm with 201-500 employees
Jan 23, 2021
They should include a network switch in a future release.
JOHNOKUNADE - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Support Engineer at Nigeria LNG Limited
Aug 18, 2021
The product should offer more integration capabilities.
Learn what your peers think about Steelhead. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
880,435 professionals have used our research since 2012.
RM
IT Network Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Nov 7, 2021
If we load a primary firewall, the secondary firewall usually handles all the active connections, but in Riverbed, this isn't the case. We lose all the active connections at the moment of failure.
Akhilesh Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at M.TECH Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.
Aug 2, 2022
The application response time of the solution can be improved.
SS
Consultant at Edge Tech Providers
Feb 17, 2023
I would like to see improvement in the solution’s configuration and protocol aspects. We have got some configurations that are not set. I would also like to simplify the call detection of some protocols.
MK
Datacenter & Infrastructure Senior Engineer at BMB
Mar 14, 2023
Steelhead's handling of encrypted traffic could be improved because it requires some complex configuration to optimize encrypted traffic, especially when working with Microsoft protocols for mail servers and VPN services
Chaudhary Muhammad Moez Manzar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Nov 17, 2023
One area for improvement is related to monitoring and visibility.
TS
IT Security Operations Engineer at Midwest Bank of South Africa
Mar 5, 2024
The solution needs to have alert notifications.
JOHNOKUNADE - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Support Engineer at Nigeria LNG Limited
Apr 25, 2024
The product needs improvement in its integration with SDN.