Expand Networks Compass Platform Supports WAN Optimization and Wide Area File Services for Eurasia Group

Business Wire, Oct 10, 2006

International Financial Research Firm Improves Real-Time Decision Making across the Globe

NEW YORK & ROSELAND, N.J. -- Expand Networks, a leading provider of application acceleration solutions over the Wide Area Network (WAN), today announced that Eurasia Group, one of the world's leading global political risk advisory and consulting firms, has adopted Expand's Compass Platform to optimize the Eurasia Group global network across three locations: New York, Washington, DC and London.

Eurasia Group, with three geographically dispersed locations, experienced difficulty when delivering IT services including large spreadsheets, graphic-heavy PowerPoint presentations, extensive Word documents, a Web-based CRM application and e-mail to their worldwide offices. The network links to a centralized server configuration were not able to handle the capacity, and network bottlenecks were a persistent problem. With a core business that hinges on analysis of breaking global news and events, Eurasia Group analysts needed to access data immediately. Eurasia Group experimented with compression for file transmission, but this method was not effective and there was no improvement.

"Inter-office collaboration along with 24-hour access to centralized resources is how we get our job done," said Rajan Kapoor, Director, Information Technology, Eurasia Group. "Inferior network performance will hurt our ability to produce timely information for our clients and ultimately hurt our bottom line. We addressed our pain point by looking at several options before we implemented a trial with Expand Networks where we tested their WAFS-enabled accelerators. The Expand Compass platform delivered immediate improvements and extended our ability to maintain a cost-effective centralized IT structure. Things are now in place the way they should be.

"Prior to installing the Expand devices, we would see a 4MB file take over a minute to transfer and our T-1 network links were at 90-100% utilization through the day. Now, the transfer time has dropped to a few seconds and we are surprised if utilization rises over 50%. On top of the infrastructure benefits, Expand's technical staff was extremely helpful and responsive throughout the deployment and post-deployment phase leaving me confident that Expand has their support priorities straight."

"Expand's leadership in WAFS and WAN Optimization, delivered through the Compass platform provides improved user productivity while reducing the costs of servicing those users," said Christopher Williams, Chief Marketing and Channels Officer, Expand Networks. "Eurasia Group has transformed their network into a mission critical component for delivering their services to clients in a more timely fashion around the globe."

About Expand Networks

Expand Networks is the pioneer and leader in helping organizations simplify their IT infrastructure while delivering remote offices fast, reliable and secure access to networked applications. This results in improved user productivity and cost-effective IT management. Expand offers a multi-service integrated platform that ensures superior performance for any application over any network. From its headquarters in Roseland, NJ and its global locations, Expand Networks (www.expand.com) serves more than 1,400 enterprise customers including: American Express, Bacardi USA, BMW, Continental Airlines, Carr America, Colgate, Elizabeth Arden, Reed Exhibitions, Target and United States Department of Defense.

About Eurasia Group

Eurasia Group (www.eurasiagroup.net) is the world's leading global political risk advisory and consulting firm. We cover political, social, security and economic developments worldwide. Our coverage is organized into four geographic practices - Asia, Europe & Eurasia, Latin America, Middle East & Africa- and four functional practices - Global Macro, Global Energy, Homeland Security and BioSecurity. We offer our clients Advisory Services, Publications and Tailored Consulting, as well as direct access to Eurasia Group analysts. Our analysts cover political developments and their impact on business and financial markets on a daily basis. Eurasia Group also provides Programming Services that enable multinational companies to engage in direct dialogue with leaders from around the world.

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