VMware ESX/ESXi is hypervisor software that enables the creation and management of virtual machines. Virtual machines act as hosts for SteelHead-c virtual appliances. Installing a SteelHead-c image on a virtual machine is much like installing RiOS software on physical Riverbed hardware.

The Riverbed Cloud Portal supports licensing and basic status reporting for ESX/ESXi-hosted SteelHead-c virtual appliances.