Case Study: Stena Rederi achieves up to 95% faster application performance and instant document access with Riverbed Steelhead

Riverbed enables global shipping operator to find a cost effective solution to improve application performance

Stena AB’s shipping division, Stena Rederi, operates globally with thousands of employees relying on Windows file sharing and Exchange for collaboration. High network latency across its WAN—exacerbated by a new Singapore office and satellite links—made opening documents take two to three minutes, so the company needed a cost‑effective way to improve application performance without building local data centers or vastly increasing bandwidth.

After testing multiple vendors, Stena Rederi deployed 25 Riverbed Steelhead WAN optimization appliances, which delivered immediate gains: up to 95% optimization for CIFS traffic and 50–60% data reduction for mail and SharePoint/MAPI traffic. Documents now open in seconds rather than minutes, user experience and productivity have greatly improved, and the lighter WAN load enabled the rollout of SharePoint for broader collaboration.

Stena Rederi

Magnus Carling

Manager, Operations and Infrastructure IT Divison