Lucy Switchgear Deploys Riverbed Steelhead Appliances

Riverbed Technology announced that global electrical components company Lucy Switchgear has deployed Riverbed Steelhead appliances across its organization. Following deployment, Lucy Switchgear bandwidth requirements have dropped by 50 percent, and as a result the company avoided a costly upgrade to its wide area network. In addition, employee productivity and global collaboration at Lucy Switchgear have improved as file download times have dropped from several minutes to as little as seconds. According to Lucy Switchgear, Riverbed is now an essential part of its IT infrastructure.

Lucy Switchgear, a manufacturer of medium and low voltage electrical switchgear, has over 100 years experience in the power distribution industry. Its solutions facilitate the delivery of electricity to homes and businesses worldwide. It has four offices in the UK and one in Dubai and the company has established a global network operation in over 50 countries through industrial partners and contractors, as well as joint ventures in Saudi Arabia and India.

Chris Ireland, global network manager for Lucy Switchgear, explained: "We were seeing an increase in the use of CAD, Outlook and video conferencing applications, which was slowly using up all of our available bandwidth. In addition, users working remotely would regularly complain of delays in accessing files. In some cases, it could take up to 90 minutes to log on and download very large CAD files, affecting worker productivity and performance."

Working with its technology reseller Foundation IT, Lucy Switchgear tested WAN optimization solutions from Riverbed as well as alternatives. It quickly became clear that Riverbed outperformed the competitors and could handle the company’s CAD file requirements.

Ireland said: "We regarded the Riverbed solution so highly that we opted to go with them despite being offered a cheaper alternative by another vendor. In addition, the Riverbed deployment was straightforward. It was one of the easiest projects I’ve overseen for the WAN."

An increase in bandwidth capacity would have meant a significant increase to Lucy Switchgear’s existing budget. Instead, by deploying Riverbed, Lucy Switchgear has reduced bandwidth utilization by 50 percent and has also avoided costly bandwidth upgrades.

Following the installation of the Riverbed Steelhead appliances, Lucy Switchgear’s international workforce noticed a huge improvement to the network. Downloading files from the UK offices now can take a matter of seconds.

As an endorsement to the success of the project, Lucy Switchgear has recently purchased 30 Steelhead Mobile licences and plans to use these for its roaming employees. The technology sits on the laptops of mobile workers, giving the same improved application performance to workers on the move.

Ireland concluded: "Steelhead appliances are now an essential component of our IT infrastructure. That’s how important Riverbed is to us."