Case Study: OraSure Technologies achieves 97% WAN traffic reduction and 23.6x throughput with Riverbed SteelHead

Riverbed SteelHead Makes Data Mirroring Work In Orasure Technologies’ Virtualized Environment

OraSure Technologies, a leader in medical diagnostic and collection technologies with about 230 employees and three data centers, runs a 90% virtualized IT environment that supports R&D, manufacturing and sales. As virtualization increased, data replication and mirroring began to overtax the company’s WAN, creating projections for costly bandwidth upgrades to handle growing backup and recovery needs.

OraSure deployed Riverbed SteelHead CX appliances at its Bethlehem HQ and Canadian site, immediately cutting WAN traffic (97% reduction at the Canadian site; typical reductions of 80–95%) and boosting throughput 23.6×, eliminating the need to increase its 100 Mbps pipeline. Combined with NetApp SnapMirror, the solution enabled frequent remote backups, improved RPO, and supports a full-environment recovery in roughly an hour, dramatically strengthening business continuity.

OraSure Technologies

Rick Kula

Manager of Information Systems