Bugaboo Deploys Riverbed

Riverbed Technology announced that Bugaboo Internatioinal, manufacturer of innovative pushchairs for babies and toddlers, has deployed 10 Riverbed Steelhead appliances and Steelhead Mobile to speed the performance of its centralized IT infrastructure and improve employee productivity and customer service.

According to Bugaboo, Riverbed was a ‘must have’ technology in its centralized IT environment; without Riverbed, Bugaboo would have been forced to either accept poor performance or rebuild its IT infrastructure.

Bugaboo designs and manufactures contemporary pushchairs that can be used for both city and leisure purposes. Founded in 1999, Bugaboo products are now available in almost 50 countries. The company has 800 employees and is headquartered in the Netherlands, with a further seven offices in the US, the UK, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Spain, and France. Bugaboo also has a factory in China.

Bugaboo had consolidated its IT infrastructure to one data center in Amsterdam. While this enabled cost savings for the company, it resulted in poor application performance for users accessing files over the wide area network (WAN). As a result of these delays, customer service levels were suffering.

Guillaume Groen, infrastructure manager at Bugaboo, explains that de-centralizing the data center wasn’t an option. "We couldn’t go back due to the cost and complexity involved in re-installing local servers at branch offices. However, just increasing bandwidth wouldn’t solve the problem either, as we knew the issue was latency."

Instead, Groen investigated WAN optimization solutions and was advised by its technology reseller ISIT to visit a company already using Riverbed products, in order to see the Riverbed WAN optimization solution in practice.

After that visit, Groen agreed to evaluate the Steelhead appliances in a simulation environment, and the results were impressive. "Once the Steelhead appliances were connected we saw an immediate improvement in application performance," says Groen. "Suddenly, files that had taken minutes to transfer were now taking just seconds. The Steelhead appliances overcame the latency issue. For Bugaboo, the Riverbed solution was ideal."

Following the test, Bugaboo deployed Steelhead appliances at its branch offices and at its manufacturing plant in China. Bugaboo also deployed Steelhead Mobile to enable its mobile workers to access files quickly regardless of where they are located.

Groen found installation to be a simple process. "Other offerings would have required a number of adjustments to be made to the network. With Riverbed, however, it was easy. The Steelhead appliances do not interfere with the network’s integrity, and the RiOS software is smart," he continues. "The actual implementation was smooth and surprisingly fast. It really was that straightforward."

"Thanks to Riverbed, we have retained our centralized data center, improved user response times, and enabled greater collaboration between users. Ultimately, this all enhances our customers’ experience when dealing with Bugaboo," says Groen.