Riverbed integrated its software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) product, SteelConnect, with Zscaler’s cloud security platform.

The joint product identifies and steers traffic to the Zscaler Security Cloud. Zscaler has more than 100 data centers worldwide. The joint SD-WAN and security product chooses the optimal Zscaler data center to use for each site in the SteelConnect network to provide businesses with cloud-based security across remote business locations.

“You don’t have to manually configure tunnels to multiple PoPs [points of presence],” said Milind Bhise, senior director of product marketing at Riverbed. “If there’s a change, say today my nearest PoP is in San Francisco, and tomorrow there is a new PoP in Palo Alto, SteelConnect will dynamically discover that. You have an automated way to discover through the SteelConnect management portal to choose the best Zscaler data center.”

Once the traffic reaches a data center, Zscaler’s technology conducts its security treatment, testing it for malware and other threats, and then passes the packets to wherever they need to go.

The partners are touting the joint product as a way to migrate from perimeter-based security appliances at branch office locations.

Riverbed’s SteelConnect SD-WAN product derived from both organic in-house technology and also the acquisition of Ocedo in January 2016.

The SD-WAN also integrates Riverbed’s application performance monitoring (APM) and network performance monitoring (NPM), which Riverbed calls SteelCentral.

Finally, SteelConnect is also integrated with Riverbed’s WAN optimization software — Riverbed SteelHead. And SteelConnect includes one-click connectivity and optimization into Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.