Inside the Riverbed Platform Expansion: Smarter AIOps and Broader Observability
- By Heidi Gabrielson
- 08-Apr-2025
In today’s hybrid world—where performance expectations are sky-high and IT environments are more complex than ever—Riverbed is once again raising the bar.
We just announced a major expansion to our AIOps and observability platform, fusing causal, predictive, generative, and agentic AI with new data observability modules that dive deep into areas where most tools still fall short: UC applications, endpoint packet capture, Intel® Thunderbolt™ and Wi-Fi devices, and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). This isn’t just another update. It’s a full-on reimagination of what AI can do for IT operations—proactive, intelligent, and enterprise-scale.
These solutions build on strong market momentum—with Riverbed observability bookings growth of 102% year-over-year (YoY) in Q1 2025, and overall bookings growth of 90% YoY, including 59% growth of Acceleration bookings.
Let’s break it down.
AIOps just got smarter
Riverbed is redefining what’s possible with AIOps by moving beyond buzzwords to real-world intelligence. With the integration of causal, predictive, generative, and agentic AI into the Riverbed Platform, IT teams gain powerful tools that aren’t just reactive—they’re proactive, intelligent, and designed for scale. Whether it’s delivering timely insights, forecasting problems before they happen, or automating workflows with precision, Riverbed is putting the future of operations in IT’s hands, without the complexity.
Predictive AI: Catching problems early
Built into Riverbed IQ Ops, predictive AI watches real-time and historical data to flag early warning signs—like latency spikes or resource bottlenecks—before they impact users. It’s about being preemptive, not playing catch-up.
Generative AI: Insights that matter
The new Riverbed IQ Assist isn’t your average GenAI tool—it moves beyond a simple chatbot to visualize root cause, recommend fixes, and integrate with ITSM tools like ServiceNow. It also supports an expanding library of use cases and allows teams to build their own—all while minimizing time to resolution and streamlining IT operations.
Smarter Telemetry with Smart OTel™
Riverbed Smart OTel™ takes a precision-first approach to OpenTelemetry—curating and filtering only the data your AI and visualization tools need. It eliminates the flood of raw telemetry, adds platform-level intelligence and automation, and even converts third-party data into OTel-compliant insights for clean data you can use anywhere.
New Unified Agent modules to eliminate blind spots
As IT environments become more distributed, blind spots remain one of the biggest challenges. The Riverbed Platform now includes three new Unified Agent modules that extend visibility into critical areas:
• Unified Communications (UC) Module: Provides real-time analysis of collaboration tool performance like Teams, Zoom, WebEx and more. Works with Riverbed NPM+ and Aternity to catch and fix UC issues, even in remote work and Zero Trust environments.
• NPM+ Packet Capture: Capture complete packet details from client and server endpoints to see what’s happening inside and outside your corporate network—even in public cloud and remote work environments.
• Intel® Thunderbolt™ & Wi-Fi: This industry-first Aternity module offers below-the-OS telemetry for analyzing connected peripherals and Wi-Fi performance. IT now gets visibility into docking stations, monitors, and more—finally solving those mystery hardware support tickets that were previously hidden.
Aternity enhancements: VDI and new dashboards
Riverbed Aternity isn’t sitting still either. New updates include:
• VDI Intelligence: Adds new support for IGEL and ChromeOS, supplementing our existing support of Citrix, Omnissa (formerly VMware), and Azure Virtual Desktop. Real-time, multi-session visibility means IT can see VDI user experience, device, and application performance for more complete troubleshooting.
• MS Teams Solution Pack: This new dashboard provides deep visibility into Microsoft Teams performance—helping IT quickly detect and resolve issues, reduce downtime, and improve the end-user experience across meetings and calls.
• Smart Device Refresh: Maximize ROI on hardware spend with a dashboard that analyzes device health, user performance, and warranty status—not just age—to make smarter refresh decisions.
Why it all matters
The Riverbed Platform brings together even broader observability, enterprise-grade AIOps, and the kind of precision data architecture that most vendors only dream about. With the patented Riverbed Data Store at its core, enterprises get:
✓ AI at enterprise scale, that’s safe, secure and accurate.
✓ Unified observability across apps, infrastructure, networks, devices—and yes, even cloud and Zero Trust environments.
✓ Real ROI: fewer tickets, faster resolution, smarter operations.
The world of IT operations isn’t getting any easier—but with Riverbed’s latest innovations, it just got a whole lot smarter. Explore what’s new on Riverbed.com