Case Study: Pierce County Library System achieves reduced network congestion and 4x faster software response with Riverbed SteelHead

Riverbed Steelhead Appliances Reduce Network Congestion and Improve Software Response Times for County Library System

Pierce County Library System (PCLS) is a public library network in Tacoma, WA with 17 branches, three bookmobiles and a service area of 1,600+ square miles serving 473,000 people. With all branches tied to a central office over individual T1 WAN links and no remote servers, simultaneous client updates and web-based Polaris traffic flooded links during peak hours, causing severe congestion and slow application response times.

PCLS deployed Riverbed Steelhead appliances in a pilot that was quick to install and dramatically reduced WAN traffic — a 2 GB software push used only ~200 MB over the WAN (89% data reduction) and produced a 9.7x capacity increase in that hour, with overall bandwidth savings of about 4x. Web application response improved roughly 4x, freeing capacity for streaming/multimedia, improving patron experience, and prompting a wider roll‑out.

Pierce County Library System

Dan Fineman

PCLS, IT Systems Administrato