Case Study: Zumtobel Group achieves faster application performance and improved network visibility with Riverbed

Riverbed Technology helps lighting company improve application performance and network visibility

Zumtobel Group, a global lighting manufacturer with about 120 offices and ~8,000 employees, centralized its applications in a data center in Austria to improve efficiency and security. Remote users in locations such as China, Australia and Europe experienced severe WAN performance problems—email and SAP transactions could take minutes to complete—prompting complaints and plans by some business units to build local networks.

Zumtobel deployed a WAN-optimization and monitoring stack from Riverbed—90 Steelhead appliances with a Central Management Console and three Cascade appliances—to prioritize traffic, cache files and gain end-to-end visibility. The changes delivered immediate improvements (users noticed faster application response within an hour), near-real-time email, faster SAP transactions, fewer support calls and higher productivity; Cascade also uncovered misdirected authentication traffic so rerouting local domain controllers cut boot times by up to sixfold and reduced Swiss office congestion.

Zumtobel Group

Tom Brady

Chief Information Officer