Science & Technology 
Science and Technology
Science and Technology 
Wed, January 14, 2009
Tue, January 13, 2009
Riverbed Technology: Riverbed Takes the Heat Off the Department of Environment and Climate Change
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - January 13, 2009) - Riverbed Technology (
The Steelhead appliances have slashed DECC's data network traffic and bandwidth usage and improved connectivity to and from the remote sites. This enhanced communication has enabled staff at DECC's disparate sites -- many of which are used as bases for the Rural Fire Service (RFS) -- to immediately access the most up-to-date information, such as maps and photos. This instantaneous access to data is critical to fighting bush fires.
Formerly known as the Department of Conservation, DECC comprises four organizations -- National Parks and Wildlife, the Environment Protection Authority, the Botanic Gardens Trust and parts of the former Department of Infrastructure Planning and Natural Resources NSW. The Department is responsible for managing the state's natural resources, regulating activities to protect the environment and responding to the challenges surrounding climate change.
When these four organizations were merged, DECC's IT department became responsible for four diverse IT environments in many locations across the state. The complexity of integration and management of these prompted DECC to research and build a new IT platform.
Fernando Martinez, Manager, ICT Infrastructure at DECC, says that a vital part of that initiative included WAN optimization to address the poor connectivity at its remote sites.
"A lot of our sites are in extremely remote locations where getting access to a suitable WAN connection is either not possible or extremely expensive," he explains. "It's simply not practical to add bandwidth to these remote sites, which is why we started looking at WAN optimization."
DECC's new IT architecture centralised both its email and backup applications and servers into the organization's two data centers in Sydney. This increased the level of traffic traversing the WAN and further demonstrated the need for WAN optimization technology.
Martinez says he was impressed by the speed and simplicity of the Riverbed products, critical factors for a government department struggling with resources.
"The performance of the Riverbed Steelhead appliances during the pre-production trial was impressive," explains Martinez. "The products scale exceptionally well and are simple to manage with the Central Management Console. This simplicity is paramount to us because we don't have a dedicated person to look after these products -- the less administration and management required, the better."
As Australia gears up for another bush fire season, DECC will play a critical role in the RFS' management of any potential disasters by making its remote sites available to fire brigades whenever necessary.
"DECC provides significant infrastructure support to the RFS during bush fire season, so it's critical our WAN is performing at peak levels, especially around data transfer and email services," says Martinez. "Already, our email traffic has been reduced by 75 percent, and the throughput we get at one of our remote sites in Mt Tomah is much higher than the physical link speed of the WAN connection. We're seeing this kind of performance boost (50-55 percent reduction in data) at all the sites where we've deployed the Steelhead devices."
According to Martinez, the increased capacity of DECC's WAN allows the organization to carry out more business via the web. This means that staff need to travel less and the organization saves money. The Steelhead Mobile PC client acceleration software also provides the same benefits as the Steelhead appliances to those users who are constantly on the move.
"Remote and travelling users are happier because their applications run faster across the WAN," Martinez says, "and the DECC is happy because we spend less money on bandwidth. Overall, I'm very pleased with the Riverbed deployment, having seen a dramatic reduction in the level of WAN data transmitted across our network. This has ultimately led to better levels of customer service."
Steelhead Products
Riverbed WAN Optimization solutions enable organizations of all sizes to overcome a host of severe problems, including poor application performance and insufficient bandwidth at remote sites. By speeding the performance of applications between data centers, remote offices and mobile workers by five to 50 times and in some cases up to 100 times, Riverbed's award-winning Steelhead products enable companies to consolidate IT, improve backup and replication processes to ensure data integrity, and improve staff productivity and collaboration. Steelhead products have been deployed in organizations ranging from the world's largest corporations with offices around the globe to small companies with a couple of sites that are just miles apart. To learn more, view Riverbed's demo: [ www.riverbed.com/pr/jack ].
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the expected demand for Riverbed's products and services, and statements relating to Riverbed's ability to meet the needs of distributed organizations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include our ability to react to trends and challenges in our business and the markets in which we operate; our ability to anticipate market needs or develop new or enhanced products to meet those needs; the adoption rate of our products; our ability to establish and maintain successful relationships with our distribution partners; our ability to compete in our industry; fluctuations in demand, sales cycles and prices for our products and services; shortages or price fluctuations in our supply chain; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; general political, economic and market conditions and events; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in our documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. More information about these and other risks that may impact Riverbed's business are set forth in our Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on October 30, 2008. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Any future product, feature or related specification that may be referenced in this release are for information purposes only and are not commitments to deliver any technology or enhancement. Riverbed reserves the right to modify future product plans at any time.
About Riverbed
Riverbed Technology is the technology and market leader in WAN Optimization for companies worldwide. By enabling application performance over the wide area network (WAN) that is orders of magnitude faster than what users experience today, Riverbed is changing the way people work, and enabling a distributed workforce that can collaborate as if they were local. Additional information about Riverbed (
Riverbed Technology, Riverbed, Steelhead, RiOS, Interceptor, and the Riverbed logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Riverbed Technology, Inc. All other trademarks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.