Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ:RVBD), the leader in application performance
infrastructure, today announced that Lathrop & Gage is using Riverbed®
Application Performance Platform solutions to improve the resiliency
of its IT infrastructure, which its attorneys depend on for their
phones, video conferences and legal applications. By accessing Riverbed®
SteelHead™ key features of path selection, WAN optimization
and QoS functionality, combined with Riverbed® SteelCentral™
network performance management (NPM) solutions, the firm has reduced
highly disruptive and costly 90-second failovers to five seconds or
less, increased network capacity by 200% to 300% at no additional
capital expense, and reduced IT troubleshooting to minutes.
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Lathrop
& Gage ranks among the top 200 largest law firms in the United
States. Headquartered in Kansas City, Lathrop & Gage has 320 attorneys
practicing in 10 offices throughout the United States. Two separate
10-gigabyte MPLS networks link headquarters and regional offices to each
other and to the firm’s two data centers. Each data center has its own
Internet connection as well. All of the firm’s critical applications –
Microsoft Office, Exchange, Outlook, legal document management system
(Autonomy iManage), VoIP and video conferencing (Cisco Unified
Communications Manager) – are centralized in data centers and delivered
over the MPLS network.
Until recently, one MPLS network was active while the other was passive,
used only when a failover from the active network occurred. This
configuration was not cost effective and caused problems for the
attorneys. For example, when the active network went down and traffic
switched over to the passive network, the failover process could take up
to 90 seconds. “Ninety seconds doesn’t sound like a lot, but it isn’t
really 90 seconds,” explained Lathrop & Gage’s IT infrastructure
manager, Tim Soto. “Your phone has to reset so you drop the call you’re
on. If someone tries to call you back they’re not going to be able to
reach you. If you’re using Outlook, your session disconnects. Ninety
seconds can cause a fatal application error. Ninety seconds is a very
disruptive disconnect.”
To ensure the network’s reliability and the availability of the
attorney’s phones, conferencing system and software applications,
Lathrop & Gage relies on a range of Riverbed solutions. Its SteelHead
appliances provide WAN optimization that ensures LAN-like performance of
applications over the network; quality of service (QoS) functionality,
which allows the IT team to prioritize voice traffic over recreational
traffic; and path selection, for directing business-critical traffic
over an MPLS network and recreational traffic over the Internet –
turning the active-passive network configuration into an active-active
one.
Lathrop & Gage’s IT team evaluated Riverbed path selection against other
vendors’ solutions and found that others would require extensive changes
to network architecture. “With SteelHead appliances already in place it
was easy to drop path selection into the existing setup,” said David
Alberico, Lathrop & Gage’s network manager. “It works perfectly and it’s
real easy to build out.”
The firm’s SteelCentral
NPM solutions include SteelCentral Flow Gateway, which collects,
aggregates, and compresses flow data, SteelCentral NetShark for
high-performance packet capture, and a SteelCentral NetProfiler
appliance, which combines flow, packet capture and SteelHead performance
data to enable proactive network monitoring, analysis, and reporting.
This solution allows the IT team to troubleshoot network issues in
minutes.
With both MPLS circuits now active, usable bandwidth increased by 200%
to 300% before WAN optimization and without any additional capital
expense. Path selection also significantly decreases failover speeds,
which are down to a non-disruptive five seconds or less. “What’s really
beautiful is the difference between something being disruptive, and
everybody stops working while you failover, versus now when there's a
failure, employees don't really know that there’s a problem and we fix
it in the background,” said Soto. SteelHead QoS functionality ensures
that even if an office reaches its bandwidth limits, it won’t be a
problem because usage is prioritized according to application.
The Riverbed Application Performance Platform™
Riverbed SteelHead and SteelCentral are part of the Riverbed
Application Performance Platform™, a complete platform that gives CIOs
the visibility to deliver, control, and optimize all IT resources across
the hybrid enterprise. Riverbed SteelHead is the industry’s
#1 optimization solution for accelerated delivery of all applications
across the hybrid enterprise. SteelHead provides increased
visibility into application performance and end-user experience and the
ability to ensure business performance SLAs through an application-aware
approach to hybrid networking based on centralized business intent-based
policies. The Riverbed SteelCentral product family is a performance
management and control suite that combines user experience, application,
and network performance management to provide the visibility needed to
diagnose and cure issues before end users notice a problem, call the
help desk, or jump to another web site out of frustration.
Connect with Riverbed
About Riverbed
Riverbed, at more than $1 billion in annual revenue, is the leader in
Application Performance Infrastructure, delivering the most complete
platform for the hybrid enterprise to ensure applications perform as
expected, data is always available when needed, and performance issues
can be proactively detected and resolved before impacting business
performance. Riverbed enables hybrid enterprises to transform
application performance into a competitive advantage by maximizing
employee productivity and leveraging IT to create new forms of
operational agility. Riverbed’s 26,000+ customers include 97% of the
Fortune 100 and 98% of the Forbes Global 100. Learn more at www.riverbed.com.
Riverbed and any Riverbed product or service name or logo used herein
are trademarks of Riverbed Technology, Inc. All other trademarks used
herein belong to their respective owners.
About Lathrop & Gage:
Lathrop & Gage has 320 attorneys nationwide serving clients in the areas
of litigation, intellectual property and business. Chambers USA ranks
Lathrop & Gage’s corporate, environmental, media and entertainment,
labor and employment, litigation and real estate practices among the
best in their regions. For more information, visit www.lathropgage.com.
Copyright Business Wire 2015