A partnership has been formed that both companies say will offer a security and WAN optimisation solution to firms with remote offices.

Dubbed a "one-box solution" it will offer a virtual instance of McAfee Firewall Enterprise software running on Riverbed Steelhead. They said it enables enterprises to deliver "accelerated data and application access to users while protecting critical information and infrastructure from security threats".

The partnership also aims to lower costs and address remote computing such as server centralisation, data center consolidation and a mobile workforce. 

Steve Dixon, Regional Director, Australia/New Zealand, Riverbed, explained, "In Australia and the world over, our customers are consolidating their IT infrastructure and moving data farther from users, which has negatively impacted the response times of business-critical applications. Our WAN optimization solutions help these customers overcome these issues and deliver LAN-like application performance to distributed employees.”

Dan Ryan, Executive VP and GM of Network Security at McAfee, added, "Customers are demanding simplified management and security that’s integrated into critical network infrastructure platforms. By recognising the eventual integration and overlap of security within the network environment, we are taking a proactive approach to offering customers a set of proven solutions that provide choice and flexibility in the marketplace. The coupling of the strengths of both companies is expected to deliver a set of solutions that customers can depend on to protect their most valuable data assets.”