Case Study: Khaleej Times achieves 5x faster application and file access with Riverbed Steelhead

Khaleej Times - Customer Case Study

Khaleej Times, the highest-circulated English-language newspaper in the Arabian Gulf with six offices and headquarters in Dubai, faced slow access to business-critical applications and files for staff in its Abu Dhabi office due to WAN latency and a limited 4 Mbps ADSL link. Upgrading bandwidth via MPLS was projected to be costly, disruptive and would not eliminate latency, so the paper sought an alternative to restore timely access to publishing systems and content.

Khaleej Times deployed Riverbed Steelhead appliances at its Dubai data center and Abu Dhabi office, a fast, non-disruptive implementation that delivered immediate gains: application load times dropped from 27–35s to 8–11s, report and record access dramatically improved, and overall file download speeds increased fivefold. The solution also produced a 30× effective increase in bandwidth capacity and a 97% reduction in WAN data, boosting employee productivity and avoiding an expensive bandwidth upgrade.

Khaleej Times

Mohan Kumar Shetty

Systems Manager