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Steelhead pros and cons

Vendor: Riverbed

4.1 out of 5

26 reviews
95% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

Steelhead offers TCP optimization for easier destination reach by caching connections. With compression and scalability, it effectively handles extensive traffic. Optimization capabilities enhance cloud migration and performance for end-users. Stability and quick technical support ensure reliability and reduced downtime. Cost savings are realized by minimizing ISP charges through optimized data usage. Challenges include network switch necessity, complex encrypted traffic handling, challenges in version upgrades, and Oracle DB traffic lag.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

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

Chaudhary Muhammad Moez Manzar

Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Nov 14, 2025

Steelhead mainly saves the money that needs to be paid to ISPs; my actual traffic is around 2 GB, but I purchased a link from the ISP for only around 700 to 800 MB, and all the prices that need to be paid monthly to the ISP are saved, which is a significant saving for my company after using Riverbed.

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Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA

Nov 26, 2024

There are several features specific to branches, like keeping data hot and active on Steelhead devices. These features prevent unnecessary data travel across the international LAN.

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Commercial Manager at IT-Experience

Mar 5, 2025

Steelhead's most valuable feature is its ability to hash and send only the important parts of the information, avoiding the resending of data.

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Chaudhary Muhammad Moez Manzar

Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Nov 17, 2023

The most valuable feature of Steelhead is its optimization capabilities.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Network Support Engineer at Nigeria LNG Limited

Aug 18, 2021

It is very easy to install the solution.

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Djurre Woudstra

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.

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TS

TshidisoSehloho

IT Security Operations Engineer at Midwest Bank of South Africa

Mar 5, 2024

The connectivity to speed is the valuable feature.

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Steelhead Cons review quotes

Chaudhary Muhammad Moez Manzar

Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Nov 14, 2025

The traffic is passing, but Oracle DB traffic experiences lag and slowness due to Steelhead, while other applications perform fine.

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Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA

Nov 26, 2024

There was a significant challenge when moving from an older version to a newer one due to changed quality of service policies.

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Commercial Manager at IT-Experience

Mar 5, 2025

Steelhead is considered an expensive solution in our country. On a scale of one to ten for expense, it would be rated an eight.

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Free Report: Steelhead Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Steelhead. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2026.

893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Chaudhary Muhammad Moez Manzar

Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Nov 17, 2023

One area for improvement is related to monitoring and visibility.

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Network Support Engineer at Nigeria LNG Limited

Apr 25, 2024

The product needs improvement in its integration with SDN.

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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

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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.

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Network Support Engineer at Nigeria LNG Limited

Aug 18, 2021

The product should offer more integration capabilities.

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Djurre Woudstra

Senior Network Engineer at a legal firm with 201-500 employees

Jan 23, 2021

They should include a network switch in a future release.

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TS

TshidisoSehloho

IT Security Operations Engineer at Midwest Bank of South Africa

Mar 5, 2024

The solution needs to have alert notifications.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 24)

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Product Categories

Product Categories

WAN Optimization

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

Fortinet FortiGate vs Steelhead

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Steelhead

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Steelhead

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Steelhead

Prisma SD-WAN vs Steelhead

Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform vs Steelhead

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs Steelhead

Aryaka Unified SASE Platform vs Steelhead

Huawei Enterprise Routers vs Steelhead

SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN vs Steelhead

Exinda vs Steelhead

WAAS vs Steelhead

Noction IRP vs Steelhead

Ipanema IpIengine vs Steelhead

FatPipe WAN Optimization vs Steelhead

See all alternatives

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