Riverbed Exams

Riverbed's Position in the Network

Riverbed Technology launched in 2002 and quickly dominated the wide-area network (WAN) acceleration market. Their flagship SteelHead appliances became standard equipment for large enterprises needing to reduce latency and bandwidth constraints across geographically dispersed offices. At its peak in 2011, the company reached a market capitalization of over $6 billion. While the industry shift toward software-defined networking (SD-WAN) and cloud computing forced the company to adapt, Riverbed retains a massive footprint in enterprise infrastructure. Organizations still rely on their hardware and software to move data faster.

The Certification Hierarchy

Riverbed divides its credential path into Associate and Professional tiers. The Riverbed Certified Solutions Associate (RCSA) targets network engineers handling day-to-day installation, configuration, and basic deployment tasks. The Riverbed Certified Solutions Professional (RCSP) and the newer Riverbed Certified Performance Engineering (RCPE) designations demand advanced troubleshooting, complex architectural design, and deep integration skills across multiple product lines.

Validating WAN Acceleration Skills

Engineers managing SteelHead deployments usually start with the 101-01: Riverbed Certified Solutions Associate - WAN Optimization. This exam validates your ability to install and configure basic WAN acceleration features. It tests your knowledge of deployment modes, in-path rules, and auto-discovery processes. You will need to know how to deploy an appliance physically in-line versus virtually, and how to configure basic pass-through rules for traffic that should not be intercepted.

For senior architects, the path branches. The 199-01: Riverbed Certified Solutions Professional - WAN Optimization tests advanced deployment scenarios, including high-availability configurations, connection forwarding, and complex traffic interception. Riverbed has also introduced the 830-01: RCPE Certified Professional WAN Optimization. This newer track emphasizes network alignment and performance engineering, requiring candidates to design enterprise-scale WAN architectures and implement data center acceleration strategies.

Network and Application Visibility

Beyond moving data faster, Riverbed focuses heavily on network visibility through its SteelCentral product line. If your role involves diagnosing application slowdowns or monitoring network health, the 299-01: Riverbed Certified Solutions Professional - Network Performance Management proves your capability. It tests your ability to capture packets, analyze traffic flows, and identify bottlenecks across complex enterprise environments. The exam requires you to demonstrate how to configure sensors, manage flow data, and generate reports that isolate whether a slowdown originates in the network or the application.

Similarly, the 499-01: Riverbed Certified Solutions Professional Application Performance Management targets engineers who need to trace transaction delays down to the specific application tier or database query.

Market Value for Riverbed Professionals

Riverbed skills serve a specific niche. These certifications hold the most weight in large enterprise environments, government agencies, and global financial institutions that move massive amounts of data across long distances. If you work for a small or mid-sized business, a Riverbed certification will not yield much return on investment. However, in enterprise network operations centers, these credentials command a premium. Network engineers and solutions architects carrying Riverbed professional certifications frequently report base salaries between $130,000 and $160,000 in the United States.

The explosion of artificial intelligence workloads and massive data sets has created a renewed hardware demand for data acceleration. Enterprises find that reducing duplicate data transfers across the network lowers cloud egress costs by up to 75 percent. Network architects who know how to configure Riverbed appliances to intercept and accelerate this specific traffic will remain necessary for the foreseeable future.