Riverbed Disrupt began today with a General Session devoted to talking about the disruption of technology in the IT landscape. Cloud is a complex topic — especially when it comes to networking — but Riverbed Technology, Inc. has come up with an innovative solution in its new SteelConnect product, according to Jerry Kennelly, chairman and CEO of Riverbed Technology, Inc.

The complexity of Cloud and networking

When Riverbed was started in 2002, Cloud wasn’t even an idea, noted Kennelly at the beginning of the General Session. But around 2007, the idea of cloud began to circulate.

“The benefits that it’s brought are really hitting hard at every company,” said Kennelly. “Now everyone has to deal with the economics of it, the investment in it, the complexity of it.”

In no other area is that complexity as apparent as in networking. In 2016, Riverbed made an investment in Ocedo GmbH, “a new diamond in the crown of Riverbed’s jewels that we offer to the market,” in Kennelly’s words. With this investment, the company created a new product called SteelConnect that will allow Riverbed to go into the mainstream networking market for the first time.

“Nobody else in the market can match,” Kennelly said. “You can … live in a new world of ease, agility, speed and reduced cost in the 21st century way to do networking and routing all through your branch applications.”

Digital transformation and how it’s affecting you

“[Digital transformation] is no longer a buzzword,” said Subbu Iyer, SVP and CMO of Riverbed Technology. “Digital transformation is happening, and it’s happening now. It’s real.” And every industry is getting affected. Iyer gave examples of John Deere and how its new tractors have tablets built in to help farmers determine soil conditions, water levels and what time of day to plant seeds.

Nowadays, a company’s challenge is: “Either you disrupt or be disrupted,” said Iyer. No one can tell who could be a competitor. And why is this transformation happening? “This is all customer-driven. At the end of the day, it’s the customer who chooses.” Customers want to engage to customers in a digital fashion, and companies must keep up, so more and more applications will be built. The IT infrastructure, however, isn’t keeping up. The new landscape will have to tap into network services. “If they cannot, it’s a black hole,” he said.

The future of networking

Paul O’Farrell, SVP and GM of Steelhead and SteelFusion Business Units at Riverbed Technology, stepped onstage next to talk about the future of networking. IT professionals are still responsible for the performance of applications, according to O’Farrell. For some, this represents amazing opportunity, but for some, there are significant challenges.

“There’s a general sense of loss of control,” said O’Farrell. “The place you can really see that is most apparent is in networking.” Enterprise networking got left behind in the ’90s, and it’s now an “incredibly complex, insecure and unpredictable environment.”

Riverbed’s networking solution is SteelConnect. “Customers had a need for the ability to support hybrid networks … and there really wasn’t anything available in the market,” O’Farrell said. So through the acquisition of Ocedo and the software Riverbed was developing, there’s a system to develop this new product that can help companies in this inevitable digital transformation.

Stay tuned for the complete General Session video, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Riverbed Disrupt.

Photo from Riverbed Disrupt General Session