Case Study: Raiffeisen Bank achieves removal of 150 branch servers and 87% bandwidth reduction with Riverbed Steelhead appliances

Raiffeisen Bank removes 150 servers from 150 branch offices with Riverbed Steelhead appliances

Raiffeisen Bank, part of the Federation of Raiffeisen Cooperatives in Northern Italy, operated 190 branch offices with servers at each location, which caused inconsistent data, costly local backups, high maintenance overhead and slow access for mobile staff. The bank aimed to consolidate IT to 40 local head offices and a centralized data center to ensure data integrity and up-to-date access without increasing bandwidth costs.

To achieve this, Raiffeisen deployed 150 Riverbed Steelhead appliances and a Central Management Console, removing 150 branch servers and centralizing backups and updates. The rollout cut bandwidth use by 87%, reduced CIFS traffic by 90% (and HTTP by over 75%), simplified maintenance, improved real-time visibility, freed staff for other projects, and set the stage to add 40 more appliances and enable mobile optimization for consultants.

Raiffeisen Bank International

Peter Werth

Director