Case Study: GeoEngineers achieves real-time collaboration and dramatically faster WAN file replication with Riverbed Steelhead appliances

Riverbed® Steelhead® Appliances and Equallogic Enable Accelerated, Simplified Replication

GeoEngineers, a 15‑office environmental consulting firm, needed to enable specialists using CAD, GIS and other large‑file applications to collaborate in real time across the WAN while reliably replicating branch data back to headquarters. WAN performance was a bottleneck—typical 720 MB file transfers could take about two hours—and Microsoft DFS replication to their EqualLogic iSCSI SAN was not optimized for wide‑area links.

GeoEngineers deployed Riverbed Steelhead appliances alongside their EqualLogic SAN, with appliances in each office. The result: a 720 MB transfer dropped from 2 hours to 10 minutes on first pass and subsequent edits to about 5 seconds, virtual throughput reached ~155 Mbps over a 3 Mbps link (3.4–4x capacity), and replication times fell to minutes or seconds. The solution was easy to deploy, reduced travel and server needs, and delivered rapid ROI with payback in months.

GeoEngineers

Courtenay Bernier

Information Technology Manager