Riverbed unveils Data Express for faster, secure AI data transfer

Riverbed has announced the launch of its Data Express Service, a SaaS solution designed to move large AI-scale datasets up to ten times faster than traditional methods.

Addressing data transfer barriers

As enterprises increasingly seek to capitalise on artificial intelligence (AI) and train large language models, many encounter significant delays moving vast amounts of data. Datasets that span petabytes are often distributed across a variety of data centres, edge locations and public cloud environments. This has created bottlenecks in delivering data to AI-optimised GPU clusters, causing data transfers to take months, impeding time-to-value, and elevating costs for AI projects.

Riverbed's Data Express Service aims to address these issues by facilitating data transfers that are up to ten times faster than current industry solutions. According to the company, what might previously have required several months of transfer time can now be completed within days. The service is designed to help enterprises overcome logistical challenges and accelerate AI strategy implementation.

Technical foundation and security

The service has been developed on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and employs post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to secure information while in transit. Data is moved through secure VPN tunnels, with enterprise-grade controls for managing access. In addition, organisations have the option to deploy data mover agents within their own environments for increased control and supplementary security.

"With today's announcement of the Riverbed Data Express Service, we will be helping customers overcome one of the biggest barriers to AI adoption-getting the right data to the right location, with industry-leading speed and security," said Dave Donatelli, Chief Executive Officer of Riverbed. "In the first half of this year, we experienced strong demand in our overall business, achieving 77% year-over-year bookings growth. With our new Data Express Service announced today, and with more services planned in the future, we will continue to build on our momentum, helping customers maximise the return on their AI investment."

Industry perspective and research findings

Recent findings from Riverbed's Global AI Research initiative, which surveyed 1,200 leaders and technical specialists across seven countries, indicate that confidence in AI is rising among global businesses. However, the survey also uncovered ongoing deficiencies in AI readiness. Three-quarters of organisations intend to establish a strategy for managing AI data repositories, and 90% regard the movement and sharing of data as crucial to realising their AI objectives. This aligns with enterprise priorities for training AI models, analysing data for predictive or inferential purposes, and deploying newer forms of AI such as Agentic AI.

Sachin Menon, Vice President of Cloud Engineering at Oracle, commented on the requirements of customers using AI in business: "Customers are looking for faster, more secure ways to move massive datasets so they can bring AI initiatives to life. With Riverbed Data Express Service deployed on OCI, organisations will be able to accelerate time to value, reduce costs, and help ensure that their data remains protected."

Expertise and market timing

Chalan Aras, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Riverbed's Acceleration Business, highlighted the importance of key attributes in data movement for AI: "Speed, security and simplicity are now key driving factors for successful AI outcomes. We're leveraging over two decades of large-scale data movement expertise to dramatically shrink data transfer timelines and accelerate our customer's path to competitive advantage in the AI era."

The Riverbed Data Express Service is expected to be generally available in the last quarter of 2025. The service aligns with a growing demand for robust, scalable and secure data transfer mechanisms in the enterprise AI sector, as organisations seek to derive greater value from their information assets in a secure and efficient manner.